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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, 



Cliap. - Copyright No. 



UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



*' Lovers and madmen have such seething brains, 
Such shaping fantasies, that apprehend 
More than cool reason ever comprehends. 
The lunatic, the lover, and the poet 
Are of imagination all compact : 
One sees more devils than vast hell can hold. 
That is the madman : the lover, all as frantic, 
Sees Helen's beauty in a brow of Egypt : 
The poet's eye, in a fine frenzy rolling, 
Doth glance from heaven to earth, from earth to heaven ; 
And as imagination bodies forth 
The forms of things unknown, the poet's pen 
Turns them to shapes, and gives to airy nothing 
A local habitation and a name." 

V, i, 4-17. 




WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 



w- 



SHAKESPEARE'S 



COMEDY OF 



A Midsummer Night's Dream 



EDITED WITH NOTES 

BY 

HOMEE.B. SPRAGUE, A.M., Ph.D. 

FORMERLY PROFESSOR OF RHETORIC IN CORNELL UNIVERSITY ; AFTERWARD PRESIDENT 

OF THE STATE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH DAKOTA ; FOUNDER OF THE MAETHA'S 

VINEYARD SUMMER INSTITUTE ; LECTURER ON SHAKESPEARE UNDER THE 

AUSPICES OF COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY (1896), AND ON SHAKESPEARE, 

MILTON, GOLDSMITH, ETC., UNDER THE AUSPICES OF THE 

AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR THE EXTENSION OF UNIVERSITY 

TEACHING; EDITOR OF ANNOTATED SELECTIONS 

FROM CHAUCER, BACON, IRVING, SCOTT, 

BUNYAN, GOLDSMITH, MILTON, ETC. 



ALSO 

SUGGESTIONS AND PLANS FOR STUDY, TOPICS 
FOR ESSAYS, ETC. 



I NOV 19 ^^' 






O 






SILVEK, BUUDETT AND COMPANY 

New York BOSTON Chicago 

1896 






OOPTEIGHT, 1896, 

By silver, BtJEDETT & COMPANY. 



/:^'5^^^v/ 



NotbJflDft iptess 

J. S. CuBhing & Co. - Berwick & Smith 
Norwood Mass. U.S.A. 



PREFACE. 



The plan pursued in the preparation of this edition of A Mid- 
summer Night's Dream is substantially the same as that in our 
annotated Hamlet, Macbeth, Merchant of Venice^ Julius Ccesar, As 
You Like It, and The Tempest, the design being to meet the wants 
especially of teachers and students, as well as to aid the general 
reader. All the notes, of course, will not be alike valuable to 
each ; but it is hoped that every reader may find in them some- 
thing helpful. 

Attention is called to the following points of difference between 
this and most, if not all, of the other school editions of the 
play : — 

1. The notes are intended to stimulate rather than supersede 
thought. They are believed to furnish sufficient material to 
enable one who thinks to arrive at correct interpretations of the 
meaning. 

2. Etymologies which throw light on the signification are care- 
fully given, as also some others, the curious nature of which is 
likely to awaken interest in such investigations. 

3. It gives many results of the latest studies of Shakespeare 
scholars. 

4. It continually presents for choice various opinions of leading 
editors and commentators on disputed points. 

5. It suggests some of the best methods of studying English 
literature, and shows how to make the choicest passages the basis 
of lessons in language and rhetoric. 

5 



6 PREFACE. 

6. It contains suggestive critical comments by recent writers, 
besides those of eminent scholars of past generations. Especially 
are we indebted to the great work of Dr. Furness, Vol. X, of his 
Variorum Edition, 1895. 

The text we follow for the most part is the excellent edition of 
Dr. Rolfe, and his numbering of the lines in referring to other 
plays. The text of the first folio is, however, more closely adhered 
to in this edition than in his. 

East Orange, N.J., MAy, 1896. 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 

Introduction to Midsummer Night's Dream .... 9 

Date of Composition 9 

Sources op the Plot 10 

Critical Comments 10-17 

Samuel Pepys. — Samuel Johnson. — Joseph Addison. — A. 
W. Schlegel. — William Hazlitt. — A. Skottowe. — T. B. 
Macaulay. — T. Campbell. — Henry Hallam. — G. G. Ger- 
vinus. — Hartley Coleridge. — H. Woelffel. — William 
Maginn. — F. Kreyssig. — Charles Cowden-Clarke, — 
Edward Dowden. — John Weiss. — F. J. Furnivall. — 
Henry Hudson. — T. S. Baynes. — R. G. White. — F. A. 
Marshall. — Barrett Wendell. — Horace Howard Furness. 



Explanations of Abbreviated Forms . . . . .18 

Midsummer Night's Dream — Text and Notes ... 21 

Appendix. 

Duration of the Action 115 

How TO Teach and Study English Literature . . 116 

Topics for Essays . . . . . . . • 122 

Index ...=... ... 123 

7 



INTEODUOTIOF. 



FIRST MENTION AND EARLIEST EDITIONS. 

The earliest mention of Midsummer NighVs Dream appears to have 
been that of Francis Meres, who in 1598 named twelve of Shake- 
speare's plays, this being one of them. 

The play was entered in the Stationers'' Begister, London, October 8, 
1600, and during this year it was twice published in quarto form. 
The first of these quartos [Fisher's] is declared by Furness to have 
'the better text, but inferior typography'; the second [Roberts's] 
to be 'superior in stage directions, in spelling, and, occasionally, in 
the division of the lines,' but 'inferior in punctuation.' "The first 
Folio" (1623), Furness continues, "was printed from a copy of Rob- 
erts's quarto, which had been used as a prompter's stage copy. Thus 
theoretically there are three texts ; virtually there is but one. The 
variations between the three will warrant scarcely more than the in- 
ference that possibly in the Folio we can now and then detect the 
revising hand of the author. In any microscopic examination of the 
quartos and folios, with their commas and their colons, we must be 
constantly on our guard lest we fall into the error of imagining that 
we are dealing with the hand of Shakespeare ; in reality it is simply 
that of a mere compositor." 

DATE OP COMPOSITION. 

With two or three exceptions, some thirty of the leading Shake- 
spearian editors and commentators of the last hundred years are 
inclined to fix upon the year 1593, 1594, or 1595, as being about the 
time of the composition of the play. (See Furness, 248-267.) 

THE TEXT. 

With the usual modernization of orthography, our text is substan- 
tially that of the first Folio. The three early editions already men- 
tioned were evidently printed with a carefulness rather unusual at 
that day. 

9 



10 INTRODUCTION. 



SOURCES OF THE PLOT. 

Stray hints, which may have influenced Shakespeare, are perhaps 
found in Plutarch, Chaucer, Ovid, Greene, George of Montemayor, 
Reginald Scot, Spenser, etc. At best they are mere hints ; and 
scholars generally concur with White, who says (Studies in Shake- 
speare, 1886, p. 14), "The Dream seems to be in substance and in 
structure entirely Shakespeare's. No prototype of it is known either 
in drama or in story." 



CRITICAL COMMENTS. 

(From Diary of Samuel Fepys, September 29,J^62.) 

To the King's Theatre, where we saw Midsummer Night'' s Dream, 
which I had never seen before, nor shall ever again ; for it is the most 
insipid, ridiculous play that I ever saw in my life. 



(From Samuel Johnson^s Edition of Shakespeare, 1765.) 

Wild and fantastical as this play is, all the parts in their various 
modes are well written, and give the kind of pleasure which the 
author designed. Fairies in his time were much in fashion ; common 
tradition had made them familiar, and Spenser's poem had made 
them great. 

{From Addison'' s Spectator, No. 419, 1712.) 

Among the English [who have introduced ghosts, fairies, witches, 
etc.] Shakespeare has incomparably excelled all others. That noble 
extravagance of fancy, which he had in so great profusion, thoroughly 
qualified him to touch this weak, superstitious part of the reader's 
imagination, and made him capable of succeeding where he had 
nothing to support him besides the strength of his own genius. 

(From SchlegeVs Lectures on Dramatic Literature, translated by 
J. Black, 1815.) 

In the Midsummer NighVs Dream there flows a luxuriant vein of 
the boldest and most fantastical invention; the most extraordinary 
combination of the most dissimilar ingredients seems to have arisen 
without effort by some ingenious and lucky accident, and the colors 
are of such clear transparency that we think the whole of the varie- 



INTRODUCTION. 11 

gated fabric may be blown away with a breath. The fairy world here 
described resembles those elegant pieces of Arabesque where little 
genii, with butterfly wings, rise, half embodied, over the flower cups. 

{From HazliWs Characters of Shakespeare's Plays, 1817.) 

Puck is borne along on his fairy errand like the light and glittering 
gossamer before the breeze. He is, indeed, a most epicurean little 
gentleman, dealing in quaint devices, and faring in dainty delights. 
Prosper© and his world of spirits are a set of moralists ; but with 
Oberon and his fairies we are launched at once into the empire of the 
butterflies. How beautifully is this race of beings contrasted with 
the men and women actors in the scene by a single epithet which 
Titania gives to the latter, "the human mortals "! 

{From Augustine Skottovje^s Life of Shakespeare, 1824.) 

An air of peculiar lightness distinguishes the poet's treatment of 
this extremely fanciful subject from his subsequent and bolder flights 
into the regions of the spiritual world. He rejected from the drama 
on which he engrafted it [the fairy mythology?] everything calcu- 
lated to detract from its playfulness or to encumber it with serious- 
ness, and, giving rein to the brilliancy of youthful imagination, he 
scattered from his superabundant wealth the choicest flowers of fancy 
over the fairies' paths ; his fairies move amidst the fragrance of 
enamelled meads, graceful, lovely, and enchanting. 

{From Macaulay''s Essay on Dryden, 1828.) 

Nothing is omitted ; nothing is crowded. Great as are the changes, 
narrow as is the compass within which they are exhibited, they shock 
us as little as the gradual alteration of the familiar faces we see every 
evening and every morning. The magical skill of the poet resembles 
that of the Dervise in the Spectator, who condensed all the events of 
seven years into the single moment during which the king held his 
head under water. 

{From CampbelVs Introductory Notice to the Dramatic Works of 
Shakespeare, 1838.) 

Of all his works, the Midsummer Nighfs Dream leaves the strong- 
est impression on my mind that this miserable world must have for 
once, at least, contained a happy man. This play is so finely delicious, 
so little intermixed with the painful passions from which Poetry dis- 



12 INTRODUCTION. 

tils her sterner sweets, so fragrant with hilarity, so bland and yet so 
bold, that I cannot imagine Shakespeare's mind to have been in any 
other frame than that of healthful ecstasy when the sparks of inspira- 
tion thrilled through his brain in composing it. 

{From Hallani's Literature of Europe^ II, vi, 39, 40 ; a.d. 1839.) 

The beautiful play of Midsummer NighVs Dream . . . evidently 
belongs to the earlier period of Shakespeare's genius ; poetical, as we 
account it, more than dramatic ; yet rather so because the indescrib- 
able profusion of imaginative poetry in this play overpowers our 
senses till we can hardly observe anything else, than from any de- 
ficiency of dramatic excellence. ... It is, I believe, altogether origi- 
nal in one of the most beautiful conceptions that ever visited the mind 
of a poet — the fairy machinery. 

(From Gervinus's Shakespeare Commentaries, 1849, quoted 
by Furness.) 

Shakespeare depicts [his fairies] as creatures devoid of refined feel- 
ings and of morality ; just as we too in dreams meet with no check to 
our tender emotions and are freed from moral impulse and responsi- 
bility . . . they tempt mortals to be unfaithful . . . with the mental 
torture of the lovers they have no jot of sympathy, but over their 
blunders they rejoice, and at their fondness they wonder. Further- 
more, the poet depicts his fairies as creatures devoid of high intellect- 
uality. . . . Nowhere is there a thoughtful reflection ascribed to them. 

(From Hartley Coleridge'' s Essays and Marginalia, 1851.) 

It is all poetry, and sweeter poetry was never written. . . . The 
characters might be arranged in a chromatic scale, gradually shading 
from the thick-skinned Bottom and the rude mechanicals, the absolute 
old father, the proud and princely Theseus and his warrior bride, to 
the lusty, high-hearted wooers, and so to the sylph-like maidens, till 
the line melts away in Titania and her fairy train, who seem as they 
were made of the moonshine wherein they gambol. 

(From Dr. H. Woelffel Album d. lit. Vereins, etc., 1852, 
quoted by Furness.) 

... In Lysander, the poet wished to represent a noble, magnan- 
imous nature sensitive to the charms of the loveliness of soul and of 
spiritual beauty ; but in Demetrius he has given us a nature funda- 
mentally less noble ; in its final analysis, even unlovely, and sensitive 
only to the impression of physical beauty. . . . The effect of the 



INTRODUCTION. 13 

same magic juice on the two men is that Demetrius is rendered faith- 
ful, Lysander unfaithful. . . . The very names Hermia and Helena 
seem to corroborate our view. For just as Hermes, the messenger of 
the gods, harmonizes heaven and earth, and, as Horace sings, first 
brought gentler customs and spiritual beauty to rude primitive man, — 
so the name Hermia hints of a charm, which, born in heaven, out- 
shines physical beauty, and is as unattainable to common perception 
as is the sky to him who bends his eyes upon the earth. But since 
the days of Homer and of Troy, Helen has been the symbol of the 
charm of earthly beauty. And it is to Lysander that the poet gives 
Hermia, and to the earth-born Demetrius, Helena. 

{From Dr. William Maginn''s Shakespeare Papers, reprinted, 1860, 
from Fraser''s Magazine, quoted by Furness.) 

As Borneo, the gentleman, is the unlucky man of Shakespeare, 
so here does he exhibit Bottom, as the lucky man. . . . The mermaid 
chanting on the back of her dolphin; the fair vestal throned in the 
west ; the bank blowing with wild thyme, and decked with oxlip and 
nodding violet; the roundelay of the fairies singing their queen to 
sleep ; and a hundred images of aerial grace and mythic beauty are 
showered upon us ; and in the midst of these splendors is tumbled in 
Bottom the weaver, blockhead by original formation, and rendered 
doubly ridiculous by his partial change into a literal jackass. He, the 
most unfitted for the scene of all conceivable personages, makes his 
appearance, not as one to be expelled with loathing and derision, but 
to be instantly accepted as the chosen lover of the Queen of the Fair- 
ies. . . . We see the same thing every day in the plain prose of the 
world. . . . Woe to the unhappy lady who is obliged to confess, 
when the enchantment has passed by, that she was " enamoured of 
an ass! ''^ . . . He proceeds onward as luckily as ever. . . . Adieu, 
then, Bottom the weaver ! . . . Go on your path rejoicing ! . . . 

(From Kreyssig^s Vorlesungen ueber Shakespeare, 1862, 
quoted by Furness.) 

When foreigners question the musical euphony of the English lan- 
guage. Englishmen are wont to point to A Midsummer Nighfs Dream. 
. . . The most pronounced contemner ... of the scrunching, lisp- 
ing, and hissing sounds of English words must be here fairly astonished 
at the abundance of those genuine beauties. . . , Note, for instance, 
the compliment to the 'fair vestal throned by the West,' the picture 
of Titania's bower, the bank whereon the wild thyme blows, the grand 
daybreak after the night of wild dreams, and, above all, the glorifica- 
tion of the poet by Theseus. 



14 INTRODUCTION. 



{From Charles C owden- Clarke' s Shakespeare Characters^ 1863.) 

Bully Bottom, the epitome of all the conceited donkeys that ever 
strutted or straddled on this stage of the world ! In his own imagina- 
tion equal to the performance of anything separately, and of all things 
collectively ; the meddler, the director, the dictator ! 



(From Dowdeii's Shakspere: His Mind and Art, 1875.) 

. . . The method of Bottom and his company is precisely the re- 
verse, as Gervinus has observed, of Shakspere's own method. They 
are determined to leave nothing to be supplied by the imagination. 
Wall must be plastered ; moonshine must carry lanthorn and bush. 
And when Hippolyta, again becoming impatient of absurdity, exclaims, 
"I am aweary of this moon! would he would change!" Shakspere 
further insists on his piece of dramatic criticism by urging, through 
the duke's mouth, the absolute necessity of the man in the moon being 
within his lanthorn. Shakspere as much as says, " if you do not ap- 
prove of my dramatic method of presenting fairy-land and the heroic 
world, here is a specimen of the rival method. ... I can do no more 
unless I adopt the artistic ideas of these Athenian handicraftsmen." 



(From Weiss^s Wit, Humor, and Shakespeare, p. 110, 1876.) 

It is a suggestion of the subtlest humor when Titania summons her 
fairies to wait upon Bottom ; for the fact is that the soul's airy and 
nimble fancies are constantly detailed to serve the donkeyism of this 
world. "Be kind and courteous to this gentleman." Divine gifts 
stick musk-roses in his sleek, smooth head. The world is a peg that 
keeps all spiritual being tethered. Watt agonizes to teach this vis 
inertice to drag itself by the car-load ; Palissy starves for twenty years 
to enamel its platter ; Franklin charms its house against thunder ; 
Eaphael contributes halos to glorify its ignorance of divinity; all the 
poets gather for its beguilement, hop in its walk and gambol before it, 
scratch its head, bring honey-bags, and light its farthing dip at glow- 
worms' eyes. 

(^From FurnivalVs Introduction to the Leopold Shakespeare, 1877.) 

The play is an enormous advance on what had gone before. But it 
is a poem, a dream, rather than a play ; its freakish fancy of fairy- 
land fitting it for the choicest chamber of the student's brain, while 
its second part, the broadest farce, is just the thing for the public 

stage. 



INTRODtfCTION. 16 



{From Hudson's Introduction to the Play, pp. 21, 22, 1880.) 

. . . A Midsummer JSfighVs Dream is a most effectual poser to 
criticism. Besides that its very essence is irregularity, so that it can- 
not be brought to the test of rules, the play forms properly a class by 
itself : literature has nothing else really like it ; nothing therefore 
with which it may be compared, and its merits adjusted ... all is in 
the land of dreams, — a place for dreamers, not for critics. For who 
can tell what a dream ought or ought not to be, or whether natural 
conditions of dream-life are or are not rightly observed? 

{From Baynes^s Shakespeare Studies, reprinted in 1894 from Fraser^s 
Magazine, 1879, 1880.) 

. . . Diana, Latona, and Circe are each styled by Ovid Titania. 
This designation illustrates Ovid's marked power of so employing 
names as to increase both the musical flow and imaginative effect of 
his verse. The name Titania, as thus used, embodies rich and com- 
plex associations. . . . Diana, Latona, Hecate are all goddesses of 
night, queens of the shadowy world, ruling over its mystic elements 
and spectral powers. The common name thus awakens recollections 
of gleaming huntresses in dim and dewy woods, of dark rites and 
potent incantations under moonlit skies, of strange aerial voyages, and 
ghostly apparitions from the underworld. . . . Shakespeare clearly 
derived it from his study of Ovid in the original. ... It is not to be 
found in the only translation which existed in his day. 

(From Whitens Studies in Shakespeare, pp. 14, 15, 1886.) 

The ' Dream ' seems to be in substance and in structure entirely 
Shakespeare's. No prototype of it is known either in drama or in 
story. . . . Eor the first time (unless we except Jack Cade) we have 
here a personage whose character has made him a widely known and 
accepted type. The conceited, pretentious man of some ability, who 
is yet an ass, has in Nick Bottom his earliest and also his most admir- 
able representative in literature. On the other hand, we have in this 
comedy the first childing of its author's fruitful fancy, and of his 
ability to clothe his fancies in phrases of delicious beauty, the sweet- 
ness of which never palls upon ear or mind. 

{From F. A. Marshall, quoted by Furness, Irving Shakespeare, In- 
troduction, ii, 325, 1888.) 

It is in the comic portion of this play that Shakespeare manifests 
his dramatic genius ; here it is that his ^ower of characterization, his 



16 ^ introduction; 

close observation of human nature, his subtle humor, make them- 
selves felt. 

[From AssH Prof. WendelVs William Shakespeare, pp. 105, 106, 1894.) 

The first, constant, and last effect of the Midsummer NigMs Dream 
is one of poetry so pervasive that one feels brutally insensitive in 
seeking here anything but delight. Nowhere does Shakespeare more 
fully justify Milton's words : — 

" Then to the well-trod stage anon, 
If Jonson's learned sock be on, 
Or sweetest Shakespeare, Fancy's child, 
Warble his native wood-notes wild.' ' 

Nothing of Shakespeare's, on the other hand, better confutes the 
saying which Drummond of Hawthornden attributes to Ben Jonson, 
that Shakespeare wanted art. While it is undoubtedly true that, over 
and over again, Shakespeare stopped far short of such laborious finish 
as makes the plays of Jonson, whatever else, so admirably conscien- 
tious, it is equally true that, when Shakespeare chose to take pains, 
his technical workmanship was as artistic as his imaginative impulse. 
Few works in any literature possess more artistic unity than the 
Midsummer NigJifs Dream, few reveal on study more of that mas- 
tery whose art is so fine as to seem artless. Alike in spirit and in 
form, then, — in motive and in technical detail, — this play is a true 
work of art ; its inherent beauty is the chief thing to realize, to 
appreciate, to care for. 

(From Furness''s Variorum Edition, Preface, pp. xx, xxi, 1895.) 

. . . Many of my superiors assert that this subject [fixing the dates 
of the plays], to me so jejune, is of keen interest, and the source of 
what they think is, in their own case, refined pleasure. To this deci- 
sion, while reserving the right of private judgment, I yield, at the 
same time wishing that these, my betters, would occasionally go for a 
while ' into retreat,' and calmly and soberly, in seclusion, ask them- 
selves what is the chief end of man in reading Shakespeare. I think 
they would discern that not by the discovery of the dates of these 
plays is it that fear and compassion, or the sense of humor, are 
awakened : the clearer vision would enable them, I trust, to separate 
the chaff from the wheat ; and that when, before them, there pass 
scenes of breathing life, with the hot blood stirring, they would not 
seek after the date of the play nor ask Shakespeare how old he was 
when he wrote it. ' The poet,' says Lessing, ' introduces us to the 



introduction; 17 1 



feasts of the gods, and great must be our ennui there, if we turn 
round and inquire after the usher who admitted us.' When, however, 
between every glance we try to comprehend each syllable that is 
uttered, or strain our ears to catch every measure of the heavenly 
harmony, or trace the subtle workings of consummate art, — that is a 
far different matter ; therein lies many a lesson for our feeble powers ; 
then we share with Shakespeare the joy of his meaning. 



18 



INTRODUCTION. 



ABBREVIATED FORMS. 



The abbreviations of the titles of books in the Bible and of the names 
of Shakespeare's plays hardly need explanation. The same is true of 
the names of dictionaries, as Worcester's, Webster's, The Century, 
The New English, The Standard, etc. 



AhhotU Abbott's Shakespearian 
Grammar. 

Ace, accent. 

Adj., adjective. 

Adv., adverb. 

Ante^ before. 

Antiq., Antiquities. 

Arm., Armoric. 

A. S., Anglo-Saxon. 

Bracket, Brachet's Etymological 
French Dictionary. 

Bret., Breton, of Bretagne or Brit- 
tany. 

Celt., Celtic. 

Class., Classical. 

Comus, Milton'' s Masque of Comus. 

Dan., Danish. 

Diet., Dictionary. 

Dim. or dimin., diminutive. 

Dis. or dissyl., dissyllable. 

Du. or Dut., Dutch. 

E., early or East. 

E. or Eng., English. 

Ed. , edition or editions. 

et seq.j et sequentia, and the fol- 
lowing. 

Faerie Q., Faerie Queene. 

Er., French. 

Fr., from. 

Furness, Furness, or Furness's 
Variorum Edition. 

G., or Ger., German. 



Gael., Gaelic. 

H. G., High German. 

lb. or ibid., ibidem, the same, in 
the same place. 

Icel., Icelandic. 

Int., International. 

Ital., Italian. 

Lat., Latin. 

Met. or Metam., Ovid's Meta- 
morphoses. 

Mid., Middle. 

N., North. 

Norw., Norwegian. 

0., old. 

Orig. , original or originally. 

Par. L., Paradise Lost. 

Pers., person. 

Plu., plural. 

Post, later, on a subsequent page. 

Q. v., quod vide, which see. 

Eolfe, Rolfe's edition. 

San. or Sansk., Sanskrit. 

Schmidt, Schmidt's Shakespeare 
Lexicon. 

Sing., singular. 

Skeat, Skeat's Etymological Dic- 
tionary of the Eng. Language. 

Span., Spanish. 

Supra, above or before-mentioned. 

Swed., Swedish. 

Tris. or trisyl., trisyllable. 

Var. Ed., Variorum Edition, 



PEESONS OF THE PLAY. 



Theseus, Duke of Athens. 
Egeus, Father of Hermia. 
Lysandeb, } .^ j^^^ ^.^^ jj^j.^.^ 
Demetrius, J 
Philostrate, Master of the revels 

to Theseus. 
Quince, a carpenter. 
Snug, a joiner. 
Bottom, a weaver. 
Flute, a bellows-mender. 
Snout, a tinker. 
Starveling, a tailor. 
HippOLYTA, Queen of the Amazons, 

betrothed to Theseus. 



Hermia, Daughter of Egeus, in love 

with Lysander. 
Helena, in love with Demetrius. 
Oberon, King of the fairies. 
TiTANiA, Queen of the fairies. 
Puck, or Eobin Goodfellow. 
Peas-blossom, ^ 
Cob-web, 
Moth, 
Mustard-seed, J 
Other fairies attending their King 

and Queen. 
Attendants on Theseus and Hippol- 

yta. 



fairies. 



Scene : Athens, and a wood near it. 



20 



A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM. 



ACT I. 



Scene I. Athens. The Palace of Theseus. 

Enter Theseus, Hippolyta, Philostrate, and Attendants. 

Theseus. Now, fair Hippolyta, our nuptial hour 
Draws on apace ; four liappy days bring in 
Another moon : but, 0, methinks, how slow 
This old moon wanes ! she lingers my desires, 
Like to a stepdame or a dowager 5 

Long withering out a young man's revenue. 

ACT I, Scene I. Theseus. Ch?iucer in his Knight's Tale, iiom. which. 
Shakespeare drew a little of his material for this play, makes ' Theseus ' 
three syllables, accenting the first. So it evidently is in II, i, 76, and very 
likely was meant to be throughout the play. Butthe classic authors and 
the dictionaries make it a dissyllable. — In classical legend he was the son 
of ^geus, king of Athens. "He rid Attica of Procrustes and other evil- 
doers ; slew the Minotaur, and carried off Minos' daughter Ariadne ; con- 
quered the Amazons and married their queen, variously called Antiope 
and Hippolyta : and after ber death espoused Phaedra." — Furness erro- 
neously marks the e long before u in ' Theseus.' 

4. lingers. Dr. Abbott in his Shakes. Gramma?', sec. 290, gives many 
instances of Shakespeare's use of intransitive verbs as transitive. — A. S. 
lang, long ; langan, to prolong, put off ; Ger. verldngern, to linger : Skeat. 
See annos demoror {^neid, ii, 047), I delay or linger the years.— 5. 
dowager = widow receiving dower or having a jointure as long as she 
lives; the property going to the heirs at her death. Theseus seems to 
think dowagers to be like office-holders who "seldom die and never 
resign." — 0. withering out. Like dream away, line 8. — Chapman 
(1598) in his translation of the Iliad, iv, 528, uses this phrase. — Skt. vd, 
to blow ; A. S. iveder, loind, air, weather ; Mid. Eng. ivederen, loidren, to 
expose to the weather. Skeat. — As she withers, the property dwindles? 
— revenue = that which comes back as income. Lat. re, back; venire, 
to. come. Accent often on 2d syl. See line 158 ; see our Hamlet, III, ii, 

21 



22 'a midsummer NIGHT'S DREAM. [ACT I. 

Hippolyta. Four days will quickly steep themselves in 
night ; 
Four nights will quickly dream away the time ; 
And then the moon, like to a silver bow 
New bent in heaven, shall behold the night 10 

Of our solemnities. 

TJieseus. Go, Philostrate, 

Stir up the Athenian youth to merriments ; 
Awake the pert and nimble spirit of mirth : 
Turn melancholy forth to funerals ; 

The pale companion is not for our pomp. ^Exit Philostrate. 
Hippolyta, I woo'd thee with my sword, 16 

And won thy love, doing the injuries ; 
But I will wed thee in another key. 
With pomp, with triumph, and with revelling. 

Enter Egeus, Hermia, Lysander, and Demetrius. 

Egeus. Happy be Theseus, our renowned duke ! 20 

Theseus. Thanks, good Egeus : what's the news with thee ? 
Egeus. Full of vexation come I, with complaint 

Against my child, my daughter Hermia. — 

Stand forth, Demetrius. — My noble lord, 

This man hath my consent to marry her. — 25 

Stand forth, Lysander : — and, my gracious duke, 

53. —10. All modern editors follow Rowe (1709) in reading new for ' now.' 
"An for an e was the easiest of all misprints." White. — 13. pert = 
brisk, lively? Welsh pert, smart, spruce. In America 'peart' is some- 
times used by country people of a bright child. — In Tempest, IV, i, 58, 
* pertly ' = quickly. — 15. companion = fellow? associate? — "Famil- 
iarity breeds contempt," and there is supposed to be a tinge of disdain in 
' companion ' here, as there often is in ' fellow.' — Lat. con, com, together ; 
panis, bread. A 'companion' was orig. a messmate. — pomp. Gr. 
Tre/aTTw, pempo, I Send ; Tro/an-jy, pompe, a sending ; an escort. A ' pomp ' was 
orig. a grand ' send-off ' ! — " ' Funerals ' (line 14), with its imagery of long 
processions, suggested here, I think," says Furness, " this word ' pomp ' in 
its classic sense." See line 19. — 16. with my sword. In the war with 
the Amazons ? So Chaucer and Plutarch show us. — 19. Triumph. Gr. 
©pia/a/So?, Thriambos, Bacchus; a hymn to Bacchus; Lat. triumphus, a 
solemn and magnificent processional march of a victorious general into 
Rome and through the streets to the Capitol. For description, see our ed. 
of Jul. Cses. I, i, 31.-20. duke. So Chaucer and Plutarch (North's 
trans, used by Shakes.) style Theseus. — Lat. ducere, to lead, draw; dux, 
ducis, a leader. Sir T. Elyot (who died in 1546) calls Hannibal duke of 
Carthage. In Chron. i, 51, we have 'the dukes (i.e. chiefs) of Edom.' — 
21. £geus (e-ge'-us) . In Plutarch he is the father of Theseus. — 24, 26. — 
Stand forth, etc. All editors follow Rowe in restoring to the text these 



SCENE I.] A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM. 23 

This hatli bewitcli'd the bosom of my child. — 

Thou, thou, Lysander, thou hast given her rhymes 

And interchang'd love tokens with my child : 

Thou hast by moonlight at her window sung 30 

With faining voice verses of faining love, 

And stolen impression of her fantasy 

With bracelets of thy hair, rings, gauds, conceits, 

Knacks, trifles, nosegays, sweetmeats, messengers 

Of strong prevailment in unharden'd youth. 35 

With cunning hast thou filch'd my daughter's heart, 

Turn'd her obedience, which is due to me. 

To stubborn harshness : — and, my gracious duke. 

Be it so she will not here before your grace 

Consent to marry with Demetrius, 40 

I beg the ancient privilege of Athens, 

As she is mine, I may dispose of her : 

Which shall be either to this gentleman 

Or to her death, according to our law 

Immediately provided in that case. 45 

words of command, which are stage directions in the orig. — 27. This 
hath. We follow the 2d, 3d, and 4th folios in omitting 'man,' because 
the word is entirely unnecessary and spoils the metre. The antithetic 
emphasis is not on ' man ' in line 25 and * man ' in line 27, but on ' this 
man ' and * this.' Theobald and some others change ' bewitch'd ' to 
'witch'd' or 'witched.' — 31. faining = loving, longing, yearning; love- 
sick [Furness]? — A. Q.fsecje7i, glsid; fsegnian, to rejoice; akin to fawn, 
to court favor. " Whoso fair thing does fain to see." Spenser. " It is 
not easy to see why every editor, without exception, I believe, should 
have followed Row^e's change to feigniyig . . . Surely there was nothing 
feigned or false in Lysander's love, nor any discernible reason why he 
should sing in a falsetto voice. His love was sincere, and because it was 
outspoken, Demetrius's wrath was stirred." Furness. — 32. stolen 
impression of lier fantasy = ' secretly stamped his {sic) image on her 
imagination ' [Wright] ? gained, in a bland and imperceptible manner, the 
form, the image dwelling in her imagination [Schmidt] ? stealthily obtained 
influence over her fancy [John Hunter] ? made a stolen impression (on 
her fancy) [Moberly] ? stealthily created the image which her fancy 
cherishes of thee? — 33. gauds = trinkets ? jewels? — Gr. yaUiv, gaiein, 
to rejoice ; Lat. gaudium ; Fr. joie, joy. — 34. knacks = toys, knick- 
knacks? — Imitative word. Gaelic cnac ; Du. knak, crack, snap. — con- 
ceits = devices like our 'Yankee notions 'f — 35. unhardened. Sug- 
gested by ' impression ' in line 32 ? So lines 49, 50, 51 ? — On the ' associa- 
tion of ideas,' one word suggesting another, etc., see our ed. of As You 
Like It, II, vii, 44, and Furness on same, — 39. be it so = if it be so that 
[Abbott, 133] ? — 44. our law. Shakespeare may have known that, long 
after Theseus, Solon's law (about 590 b.c.) gave the father power of life 
and death over his child. — 45. immediately provided in that case = 
directly bearing on the case [3Ioberly] ? expressly (provided in that case) 
[Rolfe]? — "The line has an undoubted smack of legal common-place. 



M A MIDSUMMEtt NIGHT^S DUEAM. [act i. 

Theseus. What say you, Hermia ? be advis'd, fair maid : 
To you your father should be as a god ; 
One that compos'd your beauties, yea, and one 
To whom you are but as a form in wax 
By him imprinted and within his power 60 

To leave the figure or disfigure it. 
Demetrius is a worthy gentleman. 

Hermia. Bo is Lysander, 

Theseus. In himself he is ; 

But in this kind, wanting your father's voice, 
The other must be held the worthier. 55 

Hermia. I would my father look'd but with my eyes. 

Theseus. Bather your eyes must with his judgment 
look. 

Hermia. I do entreat your grace to pardon me. 
I know not by Avhat power I am made bold, 
Nor how it may concern my modesty, 60 

In such a presence here to plead my thoughts ; 
But I beseech your grace that I may know 
The worst that may befall me in this case, 
If I refuse to wed Demetrius. 

Theseus. Either to die the death, or to abjure 65 

Forever the society of men. 
Therefore, fair Hermia, question your desires ; 
Know of your youth, examine well your blood, 
Whether, if you yield not to your father's choice, 
You can endure the livery of a nun, 70 

Poetry disclaims it." Steevens. May not a poet occasionally walk on 
terra firma ? — 46. advis'd = careful, deliberate, considerate. On advis'd 
in this sense, see our ed. of Mer. of Ven., I, i, 142; II, i, 42.-54. in this 
kind = in this respect [Wright] ? as to the present question of marriage 
[Furness] ? in the special point that your father is against him [Moberlyj ? 
— 65. die the death. Shakespeare always uses the expression of a 
judicial punishment [Wright]? — Mattheio, xv. 4. — 68. know of your 
youth = enquire of your youth [Moberly] ? ascertain from your youth 
[Staunton] ? bring your youth to the question ; consider your youth [John- 
son] ? — 69. whether. Monosyl., like Uncle Remus's hr'er for ' brother ' ? 
Frequently so in Shakes, f Abbott, 466. — 70. livery = a distinctive dress ? 
See our ed. of Mer. of Ven., II, i, 2. — nun. Wright quotes the word from 
North's Plutarch, 1631. Might Shakespeare thus poetically designate a 
virgin consecrated to Diana at Athens? "They were really debarred 
from marriage and subject to a kind of monastic rule." Moberly. Sanscr. 
nana, mother ; Gr. vawr}, nanne, aunt. Formed like mama, by a repeti- 
tion of the syl, na, used by little children to a father, mother, aunt, or 
nurse. A. S. nanna; Low Lat. nunna, a title of respect, esp. used in 
addressing an old maiden lady, or a widow who had devoted herself to 



SCENE I.] A MIDSUMMER NIGHT^S DREAM. 26 

For aye to be in shady cloister mew'd^ 

To live a barren sister all your life, 

Chanting faint hymns to the cold fruitless moon. 

Thrice blessed they that master so their blood. 

To undergo such maiden pilgrimage ; 76 

But earthlier happy is the rose distill'd, 

Than that which withering on the virgin thorn 

Grows, lives, and dies in single blessedness. 

Hermia. So will I grow, so live, so die, my lord, 
Ere I will yield my virgin patent up 80 

Unto his lordship, whose unwished yoke 
My soul consents not to give sovereignty. 

Theseus. Take time to pause 5 and, by the next new moon — 
The sealing-day betwixt my love and me 
For everlasting bond of fellowship — 85 

Upon that day either prepare to die 
For disobedience to your father's will. 
Or else to wed Demetrius, as he would ; 
Or on Diana's altar to protest 
For aye austerity and single life. 90 

Demetrius. Relent, sweet Hermia : — and, Lysander, 
yield 
Thy crazed title to my certain right. 

Lysander. You have her father's love, Demetrius ; 
Let me have Hermia's : do you marry him. 

sacred duties. The old sense is mother. (SA;ea^. — 71. aye = ever? See 
our ed. of Macbeth, IV, i, 134, as to etymology, true meaning, etc. — 
mew'd = cooped, caged, penned up?— Lat. ynutare, to change ; Fr. muer, 
to moult, shed feathers; 7nue, a bird-cage. — 73. faint = without feeling 
or fervor [Rolfe] ? " But is such an imputation [as Rolfe's] of insincerity, 
almost of hypocrisy, in keeping with the dignified seriousness of the 
Duke's adjuration? May it not be that the midnight hymns chanted 
by nuns within a convent's walls must always sound ' faint ' to the ears 
of men outside?" Furness. May not the faintness of sound be the 
effect of feebleness due to penance, or self-mortification, fasting, and 
vigils ? — 75. to undergo = in order to undergo ? as to undergo [Abbott, 
281]? which ? — pilgrimage. Scriptural? Genesis, xlvii, 9; Hebrews, 
xi, 13. — 76. earthlier happy. " Theseus' meaning," says Furness, " is 
clear, however much we may disagree with the sentiment, that in an 
earthly sense the married woman is happier than the spinster." Trans- 
pose so as to make Furness's meaning clear ! — Of course ' earthly ' is the 
opposite of ' spiritual ' ? See Shakespeare's Sonnets, v, liv, for a like senti- 
ment. — 80. virgin patent = my privilege of virginity and the liberty 
that belongs to it [Wright] ? my patent to be a virgin [Furness] ? Legal 
phraseology? — 81. lordship = lord ? dominion, government? — Ellipsis 
of to? Abbott, 201.— 92. crazed = invalid [Schmidt]? flawed? infected 
with lunacy? — Swed. krasa, to crackle; Mid. Eng. crasen, to crack, 



2^ A MIDSUMMER NIGHT^S DREAM. [ACT I. 

Egeus. Scornful Lysander ! true, he hath my love, 95 

And what is mine my love shall render him ; 
And she is mine, and all my right of her 
I do estate unto Demetrius. 

Lysander. I am, my lord, as well deriv'd as he. 
As well possess'd ; my love is more than his ; 100 

My fortunes every way as fairly rank'd, 
If not with vantage, as Demetrius' ; 
And, which is more than all these boasts can be, 
I am belov'd of beauteous Hermia : 

Why should not I then prosecute my right ? 105 

Demetrius, I'll avouch it to his head. 
Made love to Nedar's daughter, Helena, 
And won her soul ; and she, sweet lady, dotes. 
Devoutly dotes, dotes in idolatry, 
Upon this spotted and inconstant man. 110 

Theseus. I must confess that I have heard so much, 
And with Demetrius thought to have spoke thereof ; 
But, being over full of self-affairs. 
My mind did lose it. — But, Demetrius, come ; 
And come, Egeus ; you shall go with me : 115 

I have some private schooling for you both. — 
For you, fair Hermia, look you arm yourself 
To fit your fancies to your father's ivill ; 
Or else the law of Athens yields you up — 
Which by no means we may extenuate — 120 

To death, or to a vow of single life. — 
Come, my Hippolyta : what cheer, my love? — 
Demetrius and Egeus, go along : 
I must employ you in some business 

break. 'Cracked' is colloquial for crack-brained? — 98. estate = settle 
(or convey as an estate) ? So in As Tou Like It, V, ii, 11. — 100. well 
possessed = in possession of as much property? — 102. vantage = ad- 
vantage (over him in this respect) [Wright] ? For the etymology and 
root meaning, see our Macbeth, I, ii, 31. — 103. which. Abbott, 271. — 
104. of. Abbott, 170. — 106. avouch. See our note on Macbeth, III, 
i, 119. — 110. spotted — treacherous [Moberly] ? opposite of spotless ? 
Moberly cites Lat. varius (particolored), and Gr. aloAo?, aiolos (changeful 
of hue, speckled), meaning crafty. So 'toad-spotted,' Lear, V, iii, 138. — 
111. so. Abbott, 275. — 113. self. Abbott, 20.-116. schooling. Sig- 
nificant of correction, reprimand? 

117. For you = as to you? Abbott, 149.-120. extenuate = mitigate 
[Wright]? invalidate [Moberly]? See our ed. of Jul. Cass., Ill, ii, 36.— 
122. what cheer. See our Mer. of Ven., Ill, ii, 307 ; and Tempest^ I, i, 2. 
— 123. go = come [Abbott, 30] ? 



SCENE I.] A MIDSUMMER SIGHT'S BREAM. 27 

Against our nuptial, and confer with you 125 

Of something nearly that concerns yourselves. 

Egeiis. With duty and desire we follow you. 

\_Exeunt all hut Lysander and Hermia. 

Ly Sander. How now, my love ! why is your cheek so pale ? 
How chance the roses there do fade so fast ? 

Hermia. Belike for want of rain, which I could well 130 
Beteem them from the tempest of my eyes. 

Lysander. Ay me ! for aught that I could ever read, 
Could ever hear by tale or history. 
The course of true love never did run smooth ; 
But, either it was different in blood, — 135 

Hermia. cross ! too high to be enthralFd to low. 

Lysander. Or else misgraffed in respect of years, — 

Hermia. spite ! too old to be engag'd to young. 

Lysander. Or else it stood upon the choice of friends, — 

Hermia. hell ! to choose love by another's eyes. 140 

Lysander. Or, if there were a sympathy in choice, 
War, death, or sickness did lay siege to it. 
Making it momentary as a sound. 
Swift as a shadow, short as any dream ; 
Brief as the lightning in the collied night, 145 

That, in a spleen, unfolds both heaven and earth, 



125. nuptial. Shakes, once or twice uses the plural; often the sin- 
gular. Tempest, V, i, 309. — 126. nearly that = that nearly? Abbott, 
421. — 130. Belike = probably [Wright]? as it seems [Schmidt]? by 
likelihood? ' Jul. Csbs., Ill, ii, 269. — 131. beteem = afPord [White]? 
spare [Moberly] ? allow [Hudson, Wright, Kolfe]? See, as to its ety- 
mology our Hamlet, I, ii, 141. — "The root sense," says Moberly, "is 
'to think right' or 'beseeming.' " — 1.32. Ay me! Omitted in folio 1. 
The 2d folio has Hermia, for, etc. We follow the authority of the 
quartos, supposed to be better than that of the 2d folio. They read 
Eigh me : for, etc. The ay almost reproduces the Gr. al, ai (monosyl.) 
(Lat. vx), alas! which Shakespeare's 'small Greek' might have made 
familiar to him. So the Gr. oljuoi, oimoi, woe's me! — 134. etc. So Mil- 
ton thought. Par. Lost, x, 898-906. — 136. Scriptural? Matthew, x, 38. — 
enthralled. For the meaning of thrall, see our ed. of Macbeth, III, vi, 
13. — 137. misgraffed. See our As You Like It, III, ii, 107; Tioelfth 
Night, II, iv, 29-41. — 139. of friends. So the quartos. The folios have 
'of merit,' which White adopts. Better? — 140. eyes. So the quartos. 
The folio has the singular. As good? — 143. momentary. So the folio. 
The quartos have momentany. — Root mu, Sansc. mii, to push; Lat. 7no- 
vere, to move ; momentum {movimentum) , a movement ; hence an instant 
of time; mome^iianews, for a moment, momentary. — 144. shadow. Job, 
xiv, 2. — 145. collied = coal-black ? A. S. col, Ger. kohle, coal. — 
146. spleen = sudden burst [Moberly] ? swift, sudden fit [Wright] ? fit 
of passion or violence [Hudson]? "The spleen was supposed to be the 



28 A MIDSUMMER NIGHT^S DREAM. [ACT I. 

And ere a man liath power to say ^ Behold ! ' 
The jaws of darkness do devour it up : 
So quick bright things come to confusion. 

Hermia. If then true lovers have been ever cross'd, 150 
It stands as an edict in destiny : 
Then let us teach our trial patience, 
Because it is a customary cross, 
As due to love as thoughts and dreams and sighs, 
Wishes and tears, poor fancy's followers. 155 

Lysander. A good persuasion : therefore, hear me, Hermia. 
I have a widow aunt, a dowager 
Of great revenue, and she hath no child : 
From Athens is her house remov'd seven leagues ; 
And she respects me as her only son. 160 

There, gentle Hermia, may I marry thee ; 
And to that place the sharp Athenian law 
Cannot pursue us. If thou lov'st me then. 
Steal forth thy father's house to-morrow night ; 
And in the wood, a league without the town, 165 

Where I did meet thee once with Helena, 
To do observance to a morn of May, 
There will I stay for thee. 

Hermia. My good Lysander ! 

I swear to thee, by Cupid's strongest bow. 
By his best arrow with the golden head, 170 

By the simplicity of Venus' doves. 
By that which knitteth souls and prospers loves. 



seat of eruptive or explosive emotions." Hudson. See our Jul. Cses., 
IV, iii, 47; our Hamlet, V, i, 251. — 149. confusion. Four syllables? — 
See on ' confounds' in our Macbeth, II, ii, 11. — 151. edict. Ace. 2d syl. 
as in Lat. edictum, proclamation; ordinance? Lat. e, forth, dic-^re, to 
speak. ^660^^,490. — 155. fancy = love? Often so in <S/i a /fees. North's 
Plutarch has 'fallen in fancy,' i.e. fallen in love. — 156. persuasion = 
persuasive argument [Wright]? opinion [Schmidt]? — 157. dowager. 
Line 5. — 158. revenue. Line 6. — 159. remov'd. So the folio. The 
quartos have ' remote.' The meaning is the same. — 160. respects = re- 
gards? honors? looks upon? Lat. re, again, back; specere, to see, look 
upon. — 164. forth =- from [Rolfe]? out of [Wright]? — 167. to do ob- 
servance, etc. = to observe the rites of May-day [Wright] ? It hardly 
needs to be said that " this refers to the old English custom of observing 
May-day with a frolic in the fields and woods." Many English poets sing 
of the celebration. See Tennyson's May-Queen, Wordsworth's Odes to 
May, Chsiucer's Knight's Tale, etc. — Anachronism ? — 170. best arrow. 
The gold-tipped caused love ; the lead-tipped repelled it. Ovid's Meta- 
morphoses, i, 468-471; Twelfth Night, 1,1,35-37.-171. Venus' doves. 



SCENE I.] A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM. 29 

And by that fire which, burn'd the Carthage queen, 
When the false Trojan under sail was seen, 
By all the vows that ever men have broke, 175 

In number more than ever women spoke, 
In that same place thou hast appointed me. 
To-morrow truly will I meet with thee. 
Lysander. Keep promise, love. Look, here comes Helena. 

Enter Helena. 

Hermia. G-od speed fair Helena ! whither away ? 180 

Helena. Call you me fair ? that fair again unsay. 

Demetrius loves your fair : happy fair ! 

Your eyes are lode-stars, and your tongue's sweet air 

More tunable than lark to shepherd's ear. 

When wheat is green, when hawthorn buds appear. 185 

Sickness is catching : Oh were favor so ! — 

Your words I catch, fair Hermia — ere I go 

My ear should catch your voice, my eye your eye. 

My tongue should catch your tongue's sweet melody. 

Were the world mine, Demetrius being bated. 190 

The rest I'd give to be to you translated. 

See The Tempest, IV, i, 92-94. — 173. Carthage queen. But poor Dido's 
suicide and cremation occurred long after Theseus had passed away ! — 
174. false Trojan. The ' pious Eneas ' deserved the epithet. See Ver- 
gil's jEneid, iv, 416, etc. '* But Shakespeare's Hermia lived in the latter 
part of the 16th century and was contemporary with Nick Bottom, the 
weaver." Wright. — 175, 176. broke . . . spoke. Abbott, 343. — 
182. your fair = your beauty? So in As You Like It, III, ii, 85, "Let 
no face be kept in mind But the fair of Rosalind." — 183. lode-stars = 
leading or guiding stars [Wright, Hudson, etc.] ? So the ore that attracts 
iron is called lode-stone. A. S. lad, a way, a course; Fr. lidaru, to go; 
O. E. lode, a way ; lode-star, lit. way-star, the star that shows the way, or 
that leads. Skeat. — 186. favor = features, personal appearance ? See 
our Jul. CsBS., I, ii, 87 ; Macbeth, I, v, 70. —187. your words. Here we 
adopt the text of the quartos and 1st folio ; and we interpret as follows : 
" Sickness is contagious, Oh that beauty, too, were so ! — I already catch 
your words, fair Hermia — Oh that, ere I go, my ear might catch your 
voice (and so reproduce it, the speaking voice) ; my eye the beauty of 
yours; my tongue your tongue's sweet music (the singing voice)!" 
Deighton would like to read, " My /air should catch your /a w' ",• i.e. " the 
personal beauty you have ascribed to me should catch your personal 
beauty . . . fair being the general term including the particulars ' eye ' 
and 'tongue.' " Most commentators, however, follow Hanmer in chang- 
ing ' your words ' to ' yours would.' Hudson follows Lettsom, who makes 
line 188 read, "My hair should catch your hair, my eye your eye." — 
190. bated = excepted ? See Hamlet, V, ii, 23 ; our ed. of Tempest, II, i, 
97. — 191. translated = transformed ? See III, 1, 108. Lat, trans, across ; 



30 A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM, [ACT I. 

O, teach me how you look, and with what art 
You sway the motion of Demetrius' heart. 

Hermia. I frown upon him, yet he loves me still. 

Helena. that your frowns would teach my smiles such 
skill ! 195 

Hermia. I give him curses, yet he gives me love. 

Helena. that my prayers could such affection move ! 

Hermia. The more I hate, the more he follows me. 

Helena. The more I love, the more he hateth me. 

Hermia. His folly, Helena, is none of mine. 200 

Helena. None: but your beauty! would that fault were 
mine ! 

Hermia. Take comfort: he no more shall see my 
face; 
Lysander and myself will fly this place. 
Before the time I did Lysander see, 

Seem'd Athens as a paradise to me : 205 

0, then, what graces in my love do dwell, 
That he hath turn'd a heaven unto a hell ! 

Lysander. Helen, to you our minds we will unfold : 
To-morrow night, when Phoebe doth behold 
Her silver visage in the watery glass, ^lo 

Decking with liquid pearl the bladed grass, 
A time that lovers' flights doth still conceal, 
Through Athens' gates have we devis'd to steal. 

Hermia. And in the wood, where often you and I 
Upon faint primrose beds were wont to lie 215 

latum, to carry ; translatum, to carry across, transfer, or carried across, 
transferred. — 200. none. Here the 1st quarto has ' no fault ' in place of 
none. After carefully weighing the arguments, Furness prefers the folio 
reading as we have given it. —206. what graces, etc. " How powerful 
must be the graces of my beloved one, seeing that they have made Athens 
a place of torture to me! " Deighton. — 209. Phoebe. The moon was 
variously called Luna, Artemis, Diana, Selene, Phoebe, etc. Gr. 0ao?, 
phaos, (/xLs, phos, light; the sun-god, Apollo, was called ^ol^o^, Phoibos, 
Phoebus, the shining one ; and his sister, the moon-goddess, was ^oi^ri, 
Phoibe, Phoebe. — She was sometimes said to be one of the daughters of 
Uranus (Heaven) and Gaia (Earth). — when Phoebe doth behold, etc. 
i.e. at the hour when she is accustomed to behold ; V, i, 37, at midnight, 
as in line 223. By a little stretch of imagination, not the crescent nor the 
waning, but the full moon, ' riding near her highest noon,' is supposed to 
see her visage in the mirror of ocean or lake about midnight, ' a time that 
doth always conceal lovers' flights.' Is it true, as Wright says, that ' there 
is a discrepancy here in point of time ' ? — 212. still = ever? Very often 
so in the old writers. Abbott, 69. See our Mer. of Ven., I, i, 17. — 
215. faint = faint in color [Furness] ? in smell ? Those who rest are f aiat 



SCENE I.] A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM. 31 

Emptying our bosoms of their counsel sweet, 

There my Lysander and myself shall meet ; 

And thence from Athens turn away our eyes, 

To seek new friends and stranger companies. 

Farewell, sweet playfellow : pray thou for us ; 220 

And good luck grant thee thy Demetrius ! — 

Keep word, Lysander : we must starve our sight 

From lovers' food till morrow deep midnight. 

Lysander. I will, my Hermia. — \^Exit Hermia. 

Helena, adieu : 
As you on him, Demetrius dote on you ! \_Exit. 

Helena. How happy some o'er other some can be ! 226 
Through Athens I am thought as fair as she. 
But what of that ? Demetrius thinks not so ; 
He will not know what all but he do know: 
And as he errs, doting on Hermia's eyes, ^30 

So I, admiring of his qualities. 
Things base and vile, holding no quantity, 
Love can transpose to form and dignity. 
Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind ; 
And therefore is wing'd Cupid painted blind : 235 

Nor hath Love's mind of any judgment taste ; 
Wings and no eyes figure unheedy haste : 
And therefore is Love said to be a child, 
Because in choice he is so oft beguil'd. 
As waggish boys in game themselves forswear, 240 

So the boy Love is perjur'd everywhere : 
For ere Demetrius look'd on Hermia's eyne. 
He hail'd down oaths that he was only mine ; 
And when this hail some heat from Hermia felt, 

and weary [Delias, Wright] ? — 216. For ^ sweet ^ [Theobald's con]*ecture] 
which seems necessary to make the rhyme, the quartos and folios have 
'sweld' or 'swell'd.' — Psalms, Iv, 14. — 223. midnight. Inconsistent 
with lines 209, 210. See lines 2, 3. — 225. dote. ^66o«,365. — 226. other 
some. Acts, xvii, 18. —232. quantity = proportion to the estimate 
formed of them [Wright]? bulk, amount? See on 'holds quantity,' in 
our Hamlet, III, ii, 150. — Base ka, who, what; Ionic Gr. koo-o?, kosos, 
Attic Gr, n-do-o?, posos, how much; Lat. quantus, how much; quantitas, 
quantity. — 235. Cupid painted blind. Said to be a modern, not a 
classical, idea. In the English translation (not in the original French) of 
Roman de la Rose, ascribed to Chaucer, is ' the god of love, blind as a 
stone.' — 237. unheedy. Abbott, 4:50. — 239. he is so of t. So 1st quarto; 
Ae is o/i, 2d quarto ; his is often, 1st folio ; he often is, l&tev folios. Choose! 
— 240. game = sport [Singer] ? sport or jest [Wright] ? — 242. eyne. The 
old.plu. was eyen, like ox-en, {sho-en), s'hoon, etc. See especially our As 



32 A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM. [act I. 

So he dissolv'd, and showers of oaths did melt. 245 

I will go tell him of fair Hermia's flight ; 

Then to the wood will he to-morrow night 

Pursue her ; and for this intelligence 

If I have thanks, it is a dear expense : 

But herein mean I to enrich my pain, 250 

To have his sight thither and back again. [Exit. 



Scene II. Athens. Quince's House. 

Enter Quince, Snug, Bottom, Plute, Snout, and 
Starveling. 

Quince. Is all our company here ? 

Bottom. You were best to call them generally, man by 
man, according to the scrip. 

Quince. Here is the scroll of every man's name, which is 
thought fit, through all Athens, to play in our interlude before 
the duke and the duchess, on his wedding day at night. 6 

Bottom. Eirst, good Peter Quince, say what the play treats 
on, then read the names of the actors, and so grow to a point. 

Quince. Marry, our play is. The most lamentable Comedy, 
and most cruel Death of Py ramus and Thisby. 10 



You Like It, IV, iii, 50.— 245. so = then [Abbott, 66]? accordingly (Gr. 
ovToi S^, houto de) [Moberly]? — 249. a dear expense. "She makes a 
most painful sacrifice of her feelings ; his thanks, even if obtained, are 
dearly bought." Staunton. ' An expenditure which I think he will reckon 
too dear.' Moberly. — 251. his sight = sight of him ? 

" I am convinced," says Coleridge, " that Shakespeare availed himself 
of the title of this play in his own mind, and worked upon it as a dream 
throughout, but especially, and perhaps unpleasingly, in this broad deter- 
mination of ungrateful treachery in Helena, so undisguisedly avowed to 
herself, and this, too, after the witty, cool philosophizing that precedes." 

Scene II. Note the " connection between the name of Bottom and his 
trade, a ball of thread wound upon any cylindrical body being called a 
'bottom of thread.'" Halliioell. So in Tarn, of Shreiv, IV, iii, 132. — 
2. you were best. Abbott, 230. — 3. scrip. Lat. scriptum., written; a 
writing ; the ' scroll ' of next line. — See our As You Like It, III, ii, 151. — 
8. grow to a point = come to the point [Wright] ? go on regularly to the 
point [Moberly] ? come to a conclusion [Halliwell] ? come to an exact 
arrangement [John Hunter] ? that is, and so to business [Staunton] ? " The 
speech as it stands is good colloquial Bottom-ese." White. — 9, Marry = 
by Mary! or Mary help me! — lamentable Comedy, etc. Like Polo- 
nius's ' tragical-comical,' Hamlet, II, ii, 388. — 10. Pyramus and Thisbe. 
These Babylonian lovers' story is told in Ovid (Metam.y iv, 55-166). They 



SCENE II.] A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM. 33 

Bottom. A very good piece of work, I assure you, and a 
merry. Now, good Peter Quince, call forth, your actors by 
the scroll. Masters, spread yourselves. 

Quince. Answer as I call you. Nick Bottom, the weaver. 

Bottom. Eeady. Name what part I am for, and proceed. 

Quince. You, Nick Bottom, are set down for Pyramus. 16 

Bottom. What is Pyramus ? a lover, or a tyrant ? 

Quince. A lover, that kills himself most gallantly for love. 

Bottom. That will ask some tears in the true performing 
of it : if I do it, let the audience look to their eyes ; I will 
move storms, I will condole in some measure. To the rest. 
— Yet my chief humor is for a tyrant : I could play Ercles 
rarely, or a part to tear a cat in, to make all split. 23 

The raging rocks 
And shivering shocks 
Shall break the locks 

Of prison gates ; 
And Phibbus' car 
Shall shine from far. 
And make and mar 30 

The foolish Fates. 

This was lofty ! Now name the rest of the players. — 
This is Ercles' vein, a tyrant's vein; a lover is more con- 
doling. 

Quince. Prancis Flute, the bellows-mender. 

Flute. Here, Peter Quince. 35 

Quince. Flute, you must take Thisby on you. 



made love through a chink in a partition wall, and appointed the tomb of 
Ninus for a trysting place. Thisbe, arriving first, was frightened away 
by a lion ; and Pyramus, finding her robe made bloody by the lion's jaws, 
and supposing her slain, slew himself under a mulberry tree, the fruit of 
which thenceforth was red as blood. Thisbe, finding his corpse, committed 
suicide. See Class. Diet. — 21. condole = express grief? lament sym- 
pathetically. Lat. con, with ; dolere, to grieve. Bottom likes the sound 
of the word. — 23. Ercles. Bottom's word for Hercules. " Hercules was 
one of the ranters and roarers of the old moral-plays." Hudson. "The 
twelve labors of Hercules have I terribly thundered on the stage." Green's 
Groats Worth of Wit, 1592. — 23. tear a cat. As HercUles acted the 
Samson ! — make all split. See in Hamlet, III, ii, 7-11. — " Oh, it offends 
me to the soul to hear a robustious, periwig-pated fellow tear a passion to 
tatters, to very rags, to split the ears of the groundlings, who for the most 
part are capable of nothing but inexplicable dumb-shows and noise." — 
34. bellows. Domestic, or organ, or both ? The name Flute savors of 



34 A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM. [ACT I. 

Flute. Wliat is Thisby ? a wandering knigM ? 

Quince. It is the lady that Pyramus must love. 

Flute. Nay, faith, let not me play a woman; I have a 
beard coming. 40 

Quince. That's all one : you shall play it in a mask, and 
you may speak as small as you will. 

Bottom. An I may hide my face, let me play Thisby 
too. I'll speak in a monstrous little voice. ^Thisne, 
Thisne, — Ah Pyramus, my lover dear! thy Thisby dear, 
and lady dear ! ' 46 

Quince. No, no; you must play Pyramus: and, Flute, 
you Thisby. 

Bottom. Well, proceed. 

Quince. Robin Starveling, the tailor. 50 

Starveling. Here, Peter Quince. 

Quince. Eobin Starveling, you must play Thisby's mother. 

— Tom Snout, the tinker. 

Snout. Here, Peter Quince. 54 

Quince. You, Pyramus' father : myself, Thisby's father. 

— Snug, the joiner; you, the lion's part: and, I hope, 
here is a play fitted. 

Snug. Have you the lion's part written? pray you, if 
it be, give it me, for I am slow of study. 

Quince. You may do it extempore, for it is nothing but 
roaring. 61 

Bottom. Let me play the lion too : I will roar, that I will 
do any man's heart good to hear me ; I will roar, that I 
will make the duke say, ' Let him roar again, let him roar 
again.' 

Quince. An you should do it too terribly, you would 



organs. — 39. play a -woman, etc. See our As You Like It, Epilogue, 
line 15. — 41. mask, etc. " If they had not a young man who could per- 
form the part with a face that might pass for feminine, the character was 
acted in a mask, which was at that time part of a lady's dress, and so 
much in use that it did not give any unusual appearance to the scene ; 
and he that could modulate his voice to a female tone might play the 
woman very successfully." Singer. — 43. An I = if I? Abbott, 101. — 
44. Thisne. Wright thinks this word is not Bottom's softened form of 
'Thisby,' but provincial or ' Bottom-ese ' for 'thissen,' meaning in this 
manner. ' Thissens ' is so used in Norfolk. Furness is convinced that 
Wright is right. But it seems hardly worth while to change the old text. 
— 52. Thisbe's mother. She and Thisbe's father, as also the father of 
Pyramus, are not introduced in the interlude ; but Wall and Moonshine 
are. — 60. extempore (ex-tem-po-re) . Lat. ex, out of ; tempore; ex tem- 



/ 



SCENE II.1 A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM. 35 



fright the duchess and the ladies, that they would shriek ; 
and that were enough to hang us all. 67 

All. That would hang us, every mother's son. 

Bottom. I grant you, friends, if that you should fright 
the ladies out of their wits, they would have no more dis- 
cretion but to hang us : but I will aggravate my voice so 
that I will roar you as gently as any sucking dove ; I will 
roar you an 'twere any nightingale. 73 

Quince. You can play no part but Pyramus ; for Pyra- 
mus is a sweet-fac'd man ; a proper man, as one shall see in 
a summer's day ; a most lovely gentleman-like man : there- 
fore you must needs play Pyramus. 

Bottom. Well, I will undertake it. What beard were I 
best to play it in ? 

Quince. Why, what you will. 80 

Bottom. I will discharge it in either your straw-color 
beard, your orange-tawny beard, your purple-in-grain beard, 
or your French-crown-color beard ; your perfect yellow. 83 

Quince. Some of your French crowns have no hair at all, 
and then you will play barefaced. — But, masters, here are 
your parts : and I am to entreat you, request you, and de- 
sire you, to con them by to-morrow night ; and meet me in 
the palace wood, a mile without the town, by moonlight. 
There will we rehearse, for if we meet in the city, we shall 
be dogged with company, and our devices known. In the 
mean time, I will draw a bill of properties, such as our play 
wants. I pray you, fail me not. 92 

pore, without time for preparation. — 71. aggravate. Bottom means, 
perhaps, modulate. — Lat. ad, to, gravis, heavy; aggravdre, to render 
heavier, make more violent or more severe. — 72. sucking dove. More 
' Bottom-ese ' ! Bailey would improve the text by changing clove to doe ! 
whereupon Furness asks, "Had Bailey no judicious friend?" — 72, 
73. an 'twere = as if it were [Steevens, Wright]? ^' An 'twere was 
wrongly said by Home Tooke to be j)ut for ' as if it were.' . . . Some 
ellipsis is j)robably to be understood. ' I will roar you, and if it were a 
nightingale' (I would still roar better)." Abbott, 104. See line 43, — 
75. proper = handsome ? Hebreios, xi, 23. — 81. discharge = act, per- 
form? — 82. orange-tawny = reddish yellow [Wright]? dusky yellow? 

— Bret, tanii, an oak ; Fr. tan, oak bark ; tanni, tanned, tawny. — purple- 
in-grain. Late Lat. grana, kermes dye. The coccus insect, dried, looks 
like a seed or grain. From it rich red dyes are obtained. See G. P. 
Ma,l-sh's Lectures on the English Language, pp. 65-74, partly quoted in 
Furness, III, i, 115. — So. French-crown-color = the yellow of gold coin ? 

— 84. French crowns. Heads bald by reason of 'the French disease.' 
Hudson, — 87. con = learn by heart? — A. S. cunnian, to try; cunnan, to 
know, to study. — As You Like It, III, ii, 256. — 91. properties = stage 



86 A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S BREAM. [ACT I. SCENE II. 

Bottom. We will meet ; and there we may rehearse most 
obscenely and courageously. Take pains ; be perfect : adieu. 
Quince. At the duke's oak we meet. 
Bottom. Enough ; hold, or cut bowstrings. [Exeunt. 



furnishings? — 94. obscenely. Fvohsihljtov obscurely. Halliwell. 'Ob- 
scurely' for privately? — ** If Bottom, like Mrs. Malaprop, 'reprehends 
anything in this world,' it is the use of his oracular tongue, and a nice de- 
rangement of epitaphs." Rolfe. — 97. hold, or cut bowstrings = keep 
your appointment, or (figuratively, as if you were archers) give up the 
shooting? "The sense of the person using them (i.e. the words 'hold, or 
cut bow-strings') being, that he would 'hold' or keep promise, or they 
might 'cut his bow-strings,' demolish him for an archer" [Capell, Hud- 
son, Wright, etc.] ? "My (archery) challenge shall be made good, or you 
may cut my bow-strings and disgrace me " [Moberly] ? 



ACT II. SCENE I.j A MIDSUMMER MIGHT 'S DREAM. 37 



ACT II. 

Scene I. A Wood near Athens. 
Enter, from opposite sides, a Fairy arid Puck. 

Puck. How now, spirit ! whither wander you ? 

Fairy. Over hill, over dale. 

Thorough bush, thorough brier, 
Over park, over pale, 

Thorough flood, thorough fire, 
I do wander everywhere. 
Swifter than the moon's sphere ; 
And I serve the fairy queen, 
To dew her orbs upon the green. 



ACT II. Scene I. Note the peculiar kind of verse used by super- 
natural beings in Shakespeare. — 3. thorough = through ? Abbott, 478. 
See our Mer. of Ven., II, vii, 42 : our Jul. Cses., Ill, i, 137. — In lines 2, 3, 
4, 5, " the sameness of rhythm," according to Guest, " calls up in the mind 
the idea of ' a multitudinous succession.' " Coleridge is quoted as saying 
that "the measure had been invented and employed by Shakespeare for 
the sake of its appropriateness to the rapid and aiiy motion of the Fairy 
by whom the passage is delivered." Elsewhere he speaks of ' the delight- 
ful effect on the ear ' caused by ' the sweet transition ' from the metre of the 
fairy's first four lines to that of the next two. — 7. moon's. A desperate 
effort is put forth by the prosodists to make four accents in this line. 
Some make moon's into two syllables [mod-oon's, or modn-es, or modn-y, 
or modn his], or would prolong the sound of moon's or make a long pause 
after moon, or moon's. But prolongation and pauses are out of place 
here. What we want is light rapid movement, whether four accents or 
three ; and we suggest that sphere (which is really useless, except to make 
the rhyme) be touched very lightly, the emphasis falling on moon, where 
it properly belongs, making the line a trimeter (or one of three accents); 
thus: 

— w w \J 

Swift-er | than the | moon's sphere. 

See on line 246. Sphere may here mean, as Furnivall supposes, the 
innermost of the concentric hollow revolving crystalline spheres, in which 
the heavenly bodies, according to the Ptolemaic or Alphonsine system of 



38 A MIDSUMMER NIGHT ^S DREAM, [ACT II. 

The cowslips tall her pensioners be ; 10 

In their gold coats spots you see ; 

Those be rubies, fairy favors, 

In those freckles live their savors : 

I must go seek some dewdrops here 

And hang a pearl in every cowslip's ear. 15 

Farewell, thou lob of spirits ; I'll be gone : 

Our queen and all her elves come here anon. 

Puck. The king doth keep his revels here to-night : 
Take heed the queen come not within his sight ; 
For Oberon is passing fell and wrath, 20 

Because that she as her attendant hath 
A lovely boy, stolen from an Indian king ; 
She never had so sweet a changeling ; 
And jealous Oberon would have the child 
Knight of his train, to trace the forests wild ; 25 

But she perforce withholds the loved boy, 
Crowns him with flowers and makes him all her joy: 
And now they never meet in grove or green, 
By fountain clear, or spangled starlight sheen, 
But they do square, that all their elves for fear 30 

Creep into acorn-cups and hide them there. 

astronomy, were supposed to be fastened. (See our ed. of Milton's Hymn 
on the Nativity, stanza xiii.) But the moon's was the slowest of these. 
' Starry sphere' would have better conveyed the idea of swiftness. May 
not the ' moon's sphere,' then, be the moon itself, just as ' orb ' appears to 
be put for star or planet in Mer. of Yen., V, i, 60? — Wright defines 
' sphere ' as ' orbit ' .' — 9. orbs = circles ? fairy rings ? See our Tempest, 
V, i, 36. — 10. cowslips. See our ed. of Lycidas, 147. — pensioners. 
Queen Elizabeth's band of 'Gentlemen Pensioners' "were som6 of the 
handsomest and tallest young men, of the best families and fortune, that 
could be found." F. Warton. They were dressed in red and gold. — Lat. 
vensio, payment. The pensioners of Henry VIII were paid each £50 a 
year. — 15. pearl. See our Tempest, I, ii, 155.-16. lob = lubber? 
Welch lloh, a dolt, blockhead ; Du. lohhes, a booby; Welsh lleiper, flabby; 
Teutonic base lap, Scand. base lup, to droop ; to ' lob down ' is to droop. 
The orig. sense is . . . (from the notion of hanging loosely down) , being 
slack. Skeat. Henry V, IV, ii, 47; Milton's X'^Z^e-^ro, 111. —20. pass- 
ing =^ surpassingly?— fell. A. S. feZ, fierce.— wrath = wrathful. See 
wroth in our Mer. of Yen., II, ix, 77.-23. changeling. Trisyl.? 
Abbott, 487. A changeling was a child taken or left in exchange by a 
fairy. — 25. trace = to track; walk through? "There is an intimation 
here of hunting, or tracing the tracks of game." Furness. Milton's 
Comus, 423. Lat. trahere, Fr. traire, to draw; trait, a trace; tracer, 
to draw, trace. — 29. sheen = shining, bright [Johnson] ? brightness 
[Wright]? Milton thrice makes it a substantive (in Comus, 893, 1003, 
Hymn on Nativity, stanza 13).— 30. square = quarrel ? Does not the 



SCENE I.] A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM. 39 

Fairy. Either I mistake your shape and making quite, 
Or else you are that shrewd and knavish sprite 
CalPd Robin Goodfellow. Are not you he 
That frights the maidens of the villagery ; 35 

Skim milk, and sometimes labor in the quern, 
And bootless make the breathless housewife churn ; 
And sometime make the drink to bear no barm ; 
Mislead night wanderers, laughing at their harm? 
Those that Hobgoblin call you, and sweet Puck, 40 

You do their work, and they shall have good luck : 
Are not you he ? 

Puclc. Thou speak'st aright; 

I am that merry wanderer of the night. 
I jest to Oberon, and make him smile 

When I a fat and bean-fed horse beguile, 45 

Neighing in likeness of a silly foal : 
And sometime lurk I in a gossip's bowl, 
In very likeness of a roasted crab. 
And when she drinks, against her lips I bob 



idea of quarrelling in ' square ' originate from the attitude of combatants, 
the posture of pugilists? See Web. Int. Diet. — Lat. quatuor, four; Lat. 
quadrare, to make four-cornered, to square; quadra, a square; Low Lat. 
ex quadrare {ex being intensive) . Ital. squadrare, to square. Cotgrave, 
1660, defines se quarrer, ' to strout, or square it, look big on't, come his 
amies a JcemboU hrsiggSidochio-like.' — 32. Either. Monosyl.? Abbott, 
466; I, i, 69. — 33. shrewd. A. S. scredwa, the biter. Skeat. See our 
Hamlet, I, iv, 1. — 35. villagery = district of villages [Johnson] ? villages 
[Rolf e] ? village population, peasantry [Wright]? — 36. skim = do you 
not skim? [Abbott, 415]? quern. Root gar, to grind; whence also 
corn; A. S. civeorn, cwyrn, orig. 'that which, grinds,' a hand mill for 
grinding grain; remotely allied to churn. Skeat. — 37. bootless. See 
our Macbeth, IV, iii, 37.-38. barm = yeast [Steevens, Hudson] ? frothy 
head [Rolfe]? A. S. beorma, leaven, yeast. The root is bhur, to be 
unquiet, to start. Skeat. — "The word baj^m is used universally in Ire- 
land," says Steevens. Halliwell tells us he saw 'fresh barm' advertised 
in Stratford-ou-Avon in 1847. — 39. mislead, etc. See Par. Lost, ix, 364 ; 
L' Allegro, 104:. — 40. Hobgoblin. £^o6 is a corruption of Robin. Goblin 
is from Gr. Ko/SaAo?, kobalos, an impudent rogue, a sprite ; Armoric gobilin 
' lubbar-fiend ' in U Allegro, 110. — Puck. Irish pwca, an elf, sprite hob- 
goblin; bocan, a spectre; Cornish bucca, Ger. spuk, a hobgoblin; bug in 
bugbear and in humbug is a weakened form of puck; pug, an imp,'is a 
doublet of puck. Skeat. — 46. silly. So the early editors, except the first 
quarto, which has 'filly.' — 47. gossip's. God; A. S. sib, peace; later, 
kindred. So gossip = kindred through God, God-relative, sponsor in bap- 
tism ; crony ; idle tattler. The bowl, orig. christening cup, afterwards 
drinking cup. A. S. bolla, bowl ; akin to ball, bulge, billoio, bulk, from 
root meaning to sioell. The bowl held the genial 'lamb's wool,' a liquor 
in which floated roasted crab apples. Skeat, Wore, etc. — 48. crab is 



40 



A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM. [ACT II. 



And on her wither'd dewlap pour the ale. 60 

The wisest aunt, telling the saddest tale, 
Sometime for three-foot stool mistaketh me ; 
Then slip I from her — down topples she, 
And ^ tailor ! ' cries, and falls into a cough ; 
And then the whole quire hold their hips and laugh, 55 

And waxen in their mirth, and neeze, and swear 
A merrier hour was never wasted there. 
But room, fairy ! — Here comes Oberon ! 
Fairy. And here my mistress. Would that he were 
gone ! 

Enter, from one side, Oberon, with his train; from the other, 
TiTANiA, with hers. 

Oberon. Ill met by moonlight, proud Titania. 60 

Titania. What, jealous Oberon ! Fairy, skip hence : 

I have forsworn his bed and company. 
' Oberon. Tarry, rash wanton : am not I thy lord ? 
Titania. Then I must be thy lady : but I know 

When thou hast stolen away from fairy land, 65 

And in the shape of Corin sat all day, 

Playing on pipes of corn, and versing love 



crab-apple? — 50. dewlap. Tempest, III, iii, 45. So called probably 
because it ' laps ' or ' licks ' the dew. Wore. — 51. aunt. ' Aunt ' and 
'auntie' and 'uncle,' often applied familiarly to aged people! — 54. 
tailor! Meaning " I'm a tailor! " or " A tailor's posture for me! " So 
Moberly. Furness suggests that 'tailor' may be for 'taller,' and may 
be the opposite of what boys call a 'header '! —55. hold . . . laugh. 
L' Allegro, 32.-56. waxen ^ increase? Abbott, 332, quotes 'waxen' as 
illustrating the old plu. of verbs in the 'Indicative Present.' — A. S. 
weaxen, Ger. wachsen (Lat. augere .^), to increase, — neeze. A. S. niesan, 
sneosan, to sneeze. See our foot-note in Masterpieces in Eng. Lit., page 24. 
Job, xli, 18. —58. room. To make the metre, Abbott, 484, believes room 
to be here a dissyl., as if it were roo-oom! Johnson makes /ai?'z/ a trisyl., 
as if it were/a-a(or er')-y. Furness well remarks, " The break in the line 
affords sufficient pause to fill up the metre." — 60. Titania. Ovid often 
calls Diana by this name. — Pope begins a new scene here. 

61. Fairy. So the early editions. Whether addressed to Oberon, or to 
the leading fairy ('gentleman-usher'), or used as a plural, as Rev. Mr. 
Hunter thinks, it makes perfect sense. — 67. pipes of corn. Chaucer's 
House of Fame, iii, 134, has 'pi-pes made of green-e corn.' But Shake- 
speare's 'small Latin' might have shown him " *SiZye5^re77i tenui musam 
meditaris avena," you study the woodland muse (practice your rural min- 
strelsy) on slender oaten pipe. Vergil's Eclogue, i, 2. " Straws of differ- 
ent sizes were selected, and cut of different lengths, and then fastened in 



SCENE I.] A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM. 41 

To amorous Phillida. Why art thou here, 

Come from the farthest steep of India ? 

But that, forsooth, the bouncing Amazon, 70 

Your buskin'd mistress and your warrior love, 

To Theseus must be wedded, and you come 

To give their bed joy and prosperity. 

Oberon. How canst thou thus for shame, Titania, 
Glance at my credit with Hippolyta, 75 

Knowing I know thy love to Theseus ? 
Didst thou not lead him through the glimmering night 
From Perigenia, 

And make him with fair ^gle break his faith, 
With Ariadne and Antiopa ? 80 

Titania. These are the forgeries of jealousy : 
And never, since the middle summer's spring, 
Met we on hill, in dale, forest or mead. 
By paved fountain or by rushy brook. 

Or in the beached margent of the sea, 86 

To dance our ringlets to the whistling wind, 

a small frame. Such was the ' Shepherd's Pipe,' though sometimes made 
of reeds." Hiiclson. —^rer sing. Abbott, 290.— 69. steep of India. 
Milton has 'Indian steep,' Comus, 139. — 71. buskin'd. Du. broos, a 
shoe; Flemish brosekin, a little shoe, a kind of half hoot. Milton (II 
Penseroso, 102) uses buskin'd to suggest the high-heeled shoe of tragic 
actors. — 72. must. Abbott, 314:. — 75. glsmce = hint? — Jul. Cses., I, ii, 
310 ; As You Like It, II, vii, 57. — 78. Perigenia. In Plutarch Peregouna, 
daughter of the famous rohber Sinnis, and mother by Theseus of a son 
Menalippus. The early editions make this line read, "From Parigenia, 
whom he ravished." — 79. .aSgle. Rowe's correction, ^gr^es in the early 
editions. — 80. Ariadne, daughter of Minos. She helped Theseus through 
the labyrinth of Crete, but was abandoned by him. — Antiopa. Some- 
\times said to be the name of the queen of the Amazons and mother of Hip- 
polytus. See Class. Diet.— SI. forgeries = fabrications ? For the root- 
meaning see our ed. of Hamlet, II, i, 20. —82. middle summer's 
spring = midsummer's beginning [Halliwell, Steevens, Wright, Moberly, 
Hudson] ? spring preceding midsummer [Capell] ? In 2 Henry IV, IV, iv, 
35, and in Holinshed, we have ' spring of day ' ; in Luke, i, 78, ' dayspring.' 
— 84. paved = with pebbly bottom [Henley, Knight, Wright]? laid 
around the edge with stone [Johnson] ? Would fairies haunt an artificially 
paved fountain? — Lat.pavire, to beat, strike, ram down, tread down even 
and hard. Milton has ' coral-pa ven bed,' Comus, 886. — 85. beached = 
formed by a beach, or which serves as a beach [Wright]? — margent. 
Lat, margo, margin-is, brink, border. Milton, in whose minor poems are 
many traces of his reading of Midsummer N. Dr., has ' By slow Meander's 
margent green,' Comus, 232. — 86. ringlets = fairy rings, the orbs in 
line 9 [Wright, Rolfe] ? ringlets of hair [Furness] ? Surely the wind does 
not often whistle while and where the fairies dance in the green pastures, 
but often on the sea beach. Furness well observes, too, that those green 
grass rings, the fairy circles, are never found on the ** beached margent of 



42 A MIDSUMMER SIGHT ^S DREAM. [ACT II. 

But with thy brawls thou hast disturb'd our sport. 

Therefore the winds, piping to us in vain, 

As in revenge, have suck'd up from the sea 

Contagious fogs ; which falling in the land 90 

Hath every petty river made so proud 

That they have overborne their continents : 

The ox hath therefore stretch'd his yoke in vain, 

The ploughman lost his sweat, and the green corn 

Hath rotted ere his youth attain'd a beard ; 95 

The fold stands empty in the drowned field. 

And crows are fatted with the murrain flock ; 

The nine men's morris is fill'd up with mud, 

And the quaint mazes in the wanton green, 

For lack of tread are undistinguishable : 100 

The human mortals want their winter here ; 

No night is now with hymn or carol blest : 



the sea, those yellow sands, where, of all places, fairies foot it featly, and 
toss their gossamer ringlets to the whistling and the music of the wind." — 
87. hast disturb'd. "Abbott,34:7. — brawls. Not from brawl, a French 
dance, says Murray's Sew Eng. Diet. Wore, makes it a frequentative of 
brag. — 88. piping. In Milton's V Allegro, 126, " rocking winds are pip- 
ing loud." Jfa«/iew;, xi, 17.— 91. hath. ^66o«, 247. — petty. So the 
folios. The quartos have * pelting.' — 92. continent. Lat. con, together ; 
tenere, to hold ; continere, to hold together. Continentia or contirinents 
are containers, the banks that hold the river together. —95. his = its. 
See note on it in our Hamlet, I, ii, 216. — beard. 

" Shall I have nought that is fair," saith he, 

" Have nought but the bearded grain ? " — Longfelloio. 

— 97. murrain. Exodus, ix, 3; our Tempest, III, ii, 76.-98. morris. 
A game slightly like draughts or checkers ? — Three concentric squares, 
with lines drawn from the angles of the outer one to those of the inner, 
and from the middle of each side of the outer square to that of the inner. 
The game is played by two persons with nine or twelve pieces each. The 
hoys dig up the turf with their knives to represent the lines of the figure. 

— 99. mazes. Steevens says : "This alludes to a sport still followed by 
boys, what is now called running the figure of eight J' Wright adds, "I 
have seen much more complicated figures upon village greens, and such as 
might strictly be called mazes or labyrinths." — wanton = luxuriant 
[Schmidt] ? — green = grassy plain, meadow [Schmidt] ? — wanton green =■ 
fresh green grass [Moberly] ? green where sports were carried on 
[J. Hunter]? — A. S. wan, a prefix implying a negative; teon, togen, to 
draw ; to educate. Hence toanton, loose, unrestrained. See our ed. of 
Macbeth, I, iv, 34. — 101. human mortals = mankind as distinguished 
from fairies [Furness] ? Steevens and some others have insisted that 
fairies were mortal. But see line 132 ; also III, i, 163. Are Shakespeare's 
fairies unlike all others ? — want, etc. Many are the interpretations and 
emendations suggested. Capell's is approved by Furness ; viz., They want 
their accustomed winter in a country thus afflicted ; to wit, a winter en- 



SCENE I.] A MIDSUMMER WIGHT'S DREAM. 43 

Therefore tlie moon, the governess of floods, 

Pale in her anger, washes all the air, 

That rheumatic diseases do abound : 105 

And thorough this distemperature we see 

The seasons alter : hoary-headed frosts 

Fall in the fresh lap of the crimson rose^ 

And on old Hiems' thin and icy crown 

An odorous chaplet of sweet summer buds 110 

Is, as in mockery, set; the spring, the summer, 

The childing autumn, angry winter, change 

Their wonted liveries, and the mazed world. 

By their increase, now knows not which is which. 

And this same progeny of evils comes 115 

From our debate, from our dissension ; 

We are their parents and original. 

Oberou. Do you amend it then ; it lies in you. 
Why should Titania cross her Oberon ? 
I do but beg a little changeling boy, 120 

To be my henchman. 

Titania. Set your heart at rest : 

The fairy land buys not the child of me. 
His mother was a votaress of my order: 
And, in the spiced Indian air, by night, 
Full often hath she gossip'd by my side, 125 

And sat with me on Neptune's yellow sands. 



livened with mirth and distinguished with grateful hymns to their deities. 
— 103. moon, etc. Hamlet, I, i, 118, 119. — 104. Tvashes = wets, moistens 
[Schmidt, Rolfe] ? — 105. rheumatic. See, on rhpum, our ed. of Jul. 
Cses., II, i, 2m. Accent? Abbott, 492.— 106. thorough. Line 3.— 
109. Hiems' = Winter's. Ovid also personifies hiem.s — Gr. x^~^i^(^> cheiraa, 
winter weather: Skt. hima, snow. 'Himalaya ' is said to mean abode of 
snow. — thin = thin-haired ? The early editions have chinne or chin; 
but Grant White well voices the objections to such a reading: " What was 
a chaplet doing on old Hyenis's chin ? How did it get there ? and, when it 
got there, how did it stay?" Tyrwhitt first suggested thin, and this 
change is countenanced by Lear, IV, vii, 36; Richard II, III, ii, 112; 
Timo7i of Athens, TV, in, 143. If ' chin ' were right, ' garland ' would have 
been better than ' chaplet,' according to Furness. Is chaplet derived from 
luSit. caput, head? — 112. childing a,iitumn= f rug if er autiimnus (fruit- 
bearing autumn) [Steevens] ? — In sonnet 97 we have 'teeming autumn.' 
Much discussion of this word 'childing' and many proposed changes, 
among which are chiding, chilling, churlish, etc. — 11.3. mazed. See on 
amazement in our Hamlet, III, ii, 303. — 114. increase = products 
[Wright] ? So in Psalms, Ixvii, 6. — 118. lies in you = is in your power? 
— 121. henchman = page ? See note on henchman in our Lady of the 
Lake, Canto II, xxxv, 809. — 123. votaress = female votary? i.e. one 



44 A MIDSUMMER NIGHT^S DREAM. [ACT II. 

Marking the embarked traders on the flood, 

Which she, with pretty and with swimming gait 

Would imitate, and sail upon the land, 

To fetch me trifles, and return again, 130 

As from a voyage, rich with merchandise. 

But she, being mortal, of that boy did die ; 

And for her sake do I rear up her boy. 

And for her sake I will not part with him. 

Oberon. How long within this wood intend you stay ? 135 
Titania. Perchance till after Theseus' wedding day. 

If you will patiently dance in our round 

And see our moonlight revels, go with us ; 

If not, shun me, and I will spare your haunts. 

Oberon. Give me that boy, and I will go with thee. 140 
Titania. Not for thy fairy kingdom. — Fairies, away ! 

We shall chide downright, if I longer stay. 

[^Exit Titania ivith her train. 
Oberon. Well, go thy way : thou shalt not from this grove 

.Till I torment thee for this injury. — 

My gentle Puck, come hither. Thou rememberest 145 

Since once I sat upon a promontory. 

And heard a mermaid on a dolphin's back 

Uttering such dulcet and harmonious breath 

That the rude sea grew civil at her song. 

And certain stars shot madly from their spheres, 150 

To hear the sea-maid's music. 



under a vow? — Lat. votum, vow. — 127. embarked. Transpose this 
word? — 128. swimming. "There was a step in dancing called 'the 
swim,'" Furness. — 135. stay = to stay. Abbott, 349. — 137. round = 
circular dance [Wright] ? What is now called the country dance [Halli- 
well] ? See II, ii, 1 ; and on round in our Macbeth, IV, i, 130. Line 9. — 
141. fairy. "By the advice of Dr. Farmer," says Furness, " Steevens 
' omitted this useless adjective, as it spoils the metre.' And then, can 
it be believed? pronounced the following 'Fairies' as a trisyllable"? 
Prosody run mad ! — 142. chide. A. S. ciddn, to chide, brawl. — 143. thou 
shalt not from. Ellipsis as in "It shall to the barber's," Hamlet, 
II, ii, 485. — 144. injury = insult combined with injury [Wright] ? offence, 
insult [Schmidt] ? See ' injurious,' 1 Tim., i, 13. — 146. since. " The use 
of ' since ' for ' when ' arises from the omission of ' it is ' in such phrases as 
' it is long since.' " Abbott, 132. — 147. mermaid. Do mermaids belong 
to northern mythology as sirens to southern? — Lat. mare, Fr. mer, the 
sea ; A. S. m,ere, a lake ; A, S. msegd, maid ; akin to Celt, mac, a son, root of 
may, might, expressive of vigor. — dolphin's. The dolphin was noted 
for beauty, swiftness, and supposed friendliness to man. E.g. see Arion 
in Class. Diet. — certain = fixed [Schmidt] ? particular ? sundry ? some ? 
— spheres. See note on line 7; also, in our Masterpieces in Eng. Lit., 



SCENE I.] A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM. 45 

Puck. I remember. 

Oberon. That very time I saw, but thou couldst not, 
Flying between the cold moon and the earth, 
Cupid all arm'd : a certain aim he took 
At a fair vestal throned by the west, 155 

And loos'd his love shaft smartly from his bow, 
As it should pierce a hundred thousand hearts ; 
But I might see young Cupid's fiery shaft 
Quench'd in the chaste beams of the watery moon. 
And the imperial votaress passed on, 160 

In maiden meditation, fancy-free. 
Yet mark'd I where the bolt of Cupid fell : 
It fell upon a little western flower, 
Before milk-white, now purple with love's wound, 
And maidens call it love-in-idleness. 165 

notes on stanza xiii of Milton's Hymn on the Nativity. — 153. cold. 
Never warmed by love? I, 1, 73. — 154. all arm'd. I, i, 169, 170.— 
155. vestal. To Vesta, ' goddess of conserving forces and life-giving 
warmth,' were consecrated, under a vow of perpetual chastity, originally 
four, afterwards six, ' vestal virgins.' They were selected by thQ pontifex 
maximus, and served thirty years. Special honors were paid them. Their 
duty was to keep the * eternal fire ' burning on Vesta's altar day and night. 
She was worshipped in private as the goddess of hearth and home in every 
Roman house. Her public sanctuary stood in the Forum. Gr. 'Eo-rta, 
Hestia; fr. e^ojaai, hezomai, root eS, hed, to sit. See Bid. of Antiquities. 
— 158. might = was able to? Abbott, 312.-159. watery moon. In 
Hamlet, I, i, 118, 119, the moon is characterized as 

' the moist star 
Upon whose influence Neptune's empire stands.' 

— 161. fancy-free = unenslaved by love, heart-whole? This line is de- 
clared by White to be * the most beautiful example in literature of the beauty 
of alliteration.' See V, i, 145, 146. — Lines 145-165 have elicited a vast deal 
of comment. A hundred and fifty years ago, Warburton, afterwards Bishop 
of Gloucester, discovered, as he thought, in these lines ' the noblest and 
justest allegory ever written.' Following Rowe (1709) he makes the ' fair 
vestal ' to be Queen Elizabeth ; and, so far, all concur. He then goes on to 
claim that the ' mermaid ' was Mary Queen of Scots ; that the ' dolphin ' was 
the Dauphin of France, son of Henry II ; that the ' dulcet and harmonious 
breath ' signified Mary's great abilities of genius and learning ; ' the rude 
sea,' Scotland encircled with the ocean ; the ' stars ' that ' shot madly from 
their spheres ' were ' the earls of Northumberland and Westmoreland who 
fell in her quarrel and the great duke of Norfolk.' Other commentators 
suggest additional particulars with modifications. The reader who is 
curious to know more of the argument will find in Furness sixteen closely 
packed large octavo pages given up to the discussion. Very charming the 
pages are. The argument is cleverly put and cleverly answered.^— Lines 
145 to 151 are quite generally believed to be a reminiscence of the ' princely 
pleasures ' with which the Earl of Leicester entertained Elizabeth at Ken- 
ilworth Castle in 1575, so graphicalljr described by Walter Scott in his 
great novel Kenilw orth. —1Q5, love-in-idleness = the tricolored violet, 



46 A MIDSUMMER NIGHT^S DREAM. [act II. 

Fetcli me that flower ; the herb I show'd thee once : 

The juice of it on sleeping eyelids laid 

Will make or man or woman madly dote 

Upon the next live creature that it sees. 

T'etch me this herb ; and be thou here again 170 

Ere the leviathan can swim a league. 

Pack. I'll put a girdle round about the earth 
In forty minutes. \_Exit. 

Oberon. Having once this juice, 

I'll watch Titania when she is asleep, 

And drop the liquor of it in her eyes. 175 

The next thing then she waking looks upon, 
Be it on lion, bear, or wolf, or bull. 
On meddling monkey, or on busy ape, 
She shall pursue it with the soul of love ; 
And ere I take this charm off from her sight, 180 

As I can take it with another herb, 
I'll make her render up her page to me. 
But who comes here ? I am invisible ; 
And I will overhear their conference. 



Enter Demetrius, Helena following him. 

Demetrius. I love thee not, therefore pursue me not. 185 
Where is Lysander and fair Hermia ? 
The one I'll slay, the other slayeth me. 



called also 'pansy,' or 'heartsease,' or 'three faces in one hood.' Dr. 
Prior, according to Ellacombe, quoted by Furness, adds other names; as 
' herb trinity,' ' fancy,' ' flamy,' ' kiss me,' ' cull me,' ' cuddle me to you,' 
'jump up and kiss me,' ' pink of my John,' etc., etc. Furness adds, " I 
think the commonest name in this country is ' Johnny-jump-up ' " ! — 171, 
leviathan. Shakes, is supposed to mean the whale. Psalms, civ., 26. 
But see Job, xli. — Heb. livydthdn, an aquatic animal, dragon, serpent; 
so called from its twisting itself in curves ; fr. Heb. Idvdh, to cleave ; 
Arab, root laioa', to bend, lawd, the twisting or coiling of a serpent, 
Skeat. See our ed. of 1st 2 books of Par. Lost, 1, 201,-172. girdle 
round, about the earth. The expression, accordiag to Steevens, Staun- 
ton, and Halliwell, is almost proverbial of a voyage round the world. An 
Emblem by Whitney, 1586, represents "a globe whereon rides Drake's 
ship, which first circumnavigated the earth ; to the prow of this ship is 
attached a girdle which goes round the world, while the other end is held 
by the hand of God, issuing from the clouds." Green's Emblem Writers, 
quoted by Furness. — 179. soul of love. So 'soul of goodness' in King 
Henry's "There is some soul of goodness in things evil," Henry V, IV, 
i, 4. —180. off from. So all the early ed. except 1st quarto. — 187. slay 
. . . slayeth. This reading, first suggested by Rev. Styan Thirlby in 



SCENE I.] A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM. 47 

Thou told'st me they were stolen unto this wood ; 

And here am I, and wode within this wood, 

Because I cannot meet my Hermia. 190 

Hence, get thee gone, and follow me no more. 

Helena. You draw me, you hard-hearted adamant ; 
But yet you draw not iron, for my heart 
Is true as steel : leave you your power to draw, 
And I shall have no power to follow you. 195 

Demetrius. Do I entice you ? do I speak you fair ? 
Or, rather, do I not in plainest truth 
Tell you, I do not, nor I cannot love you ? 

Helena. And even for that do I love you the more. 
I am your spaniel ; and, Demetrius, 200 

The more you beat me, I will fawn on you : 
Use me but as your spaniel, spurn me, strike me, 
Neglect me, lose me ; only give me leave. 
Unworthy as I am, to follow you. 

What worser place can I beg in your love, — 205 

And yet a place of high respect with me, — 
Than to be used as you use your dog ? 

Demetrius. Tempt not too much the hatred of my spirit, 
For I am sick when I do look on thee. 

Helena. And I am sick when I look not on you. 210 

Demetrius. You do impeach your modesty too much, 
To leave the city and commit yourself 
Into the hands of one that loves you not ; 
To trust the opportunity of night 

And the ill counsel of a desert place 215 

With the rich worth of your virginity. 



1729, is almost universally adopted in place of the early reading stay . . . 
stayeth. The st and si are so near alike m the old MSS., and even in the 
old fonts of type, as to be nearly undistinguishable, and surely ' slay ' and 
' slayeth ' give a far better meaning than ' stay ' and ' stayeth ' ? Hermia 
does not 'stay' him, and he is 'mad' enough to Mil! Ill, ii, 64. — 189. 
wode = mad, raging [Hanmer, Capell, etc.]? A. S wdd, mad, raging; 
akin to Lat. vat-es, prophet or poet, filled with divine frenzy; hence 
Woden, applied to the highest of Scandinavian divinities. Skeat. — Note 
the paronomasia. — 192. adamant = loadstone [Wright] ? magnet [Rolfe]? 
hardest metal? diamond ? — See note on adamantine in our ed. 1st 2 books 
Par. Lost, i, 48. — 196. speak you fair = speak well of or to you ? See 
Mer. of Yen., IV, i, 266; Rom. and Jul., Ill, i, 150. — 198. nor I cannot. 
Abbott, 406.-200. spaniel. Span, espanol. — 205. worser. Frequent 
in Shakes.; as in Hamlet, III, iv, 155. — 211. impeach = bring discredit 
upon? — Lat. pes, ped-is, a foot ; pedica, a fetter ; Low Lat. impedicare, to 
fetter ; Fr. empecher, to clog an animal ; or it may be derived from (or at 



48 A MIDSUMMER NIGHT ^S DREAM. [ACT II. 

Helena. Your virtue is my privilege for that. 
It is not night when I do see your face, 
Therefore I think I am not in the night ; 
Nor doth this wood lack worlds of company, 220 

For you in my respect are all the world : 
Then how can it be said I am alone, 
When all the world is here to look on me ? 

Demetrius. I'll run from thee and hide me in the brakes, 
And leave thee to the mercy of wild beasts. 225 

Helena. The wildest hath not such a heart as you. 
Run when you will, the story shall be chang'd : 
Apollo flies, and Daphne holds the chase ; 
The dove pursues the griffin ; the mild hind 
Makes speed to catch the tiger ; bootless speed, 230 

When cowardice pursues and valor flies. 

Demetrius. 1 will not stay thy questions; let me go : 
Or, if thou follow me, do not believe 
But I shall do thee mischief in the wood. 

Helena. Ay, in the temple, in the town, the field, 235 

You do me mischief. Fie, Demetrius ! 
Your wrongs do set a scandal on my sex : 
We cannot fight for love, as men may do ; 
We should be woo'd, and were not made to woo. 

[Exit Demetrius. 
I'll follow thee and make a heaven of hell, 240 

To die upon the hand I love so well. \^Exit. 



least influenced by) Low Lat. impactare, to bind fast ; fr. impingere, im- 
pactum, to fasten, to bind ; fr. Lat. in, on, in, and pangere, pactum, to 
fasten. Skeat, Bracket. — Mer. of Ven., Ill, ii, 273; iii, 29. —217. privi- 
lege = protection ? warrant (against wrong) ? immunity ? Lat. privus, 
single ; lex, leg-is, law ; prnvilegium, a law relating to a single person ; a 
privilege. — 218. It is not night, etc. Johnson notes the similarity of 
thought and expression to those of TibuUus. Carm., IV, xiii, 11 : 

Tu node vel atra 
Lumen, et in solis tu miM turba locis. 

You, even in night's darkness, are my light ; and you in lonely places are 
my abundant company. Psalms, cxxxix, 11. — 221. respect = regard or 
estimation [Wright]? eyes, view [Rolf e] ? — 228. Daphne. Daughter of 
a river-god in Thessaly. Beloved by Apollo, she fled from him, and was 
changed into an ever-living laurel, the favorite tree of the god. — 229. 
griffin = a fabulous monster, half lion and half eagle. It was named from 
its hooked beak. Gr. 7pu>, grups, a griffin ; ypv-rrog, grupos, curved. See 
gryphon in our 1st 2 books of Par. Lost, ii, 943. —232. stay — wait for? 
stop? V,i,24:8. — 234. but =but that? ^&6o«, 122.— 237. scandal, Jul. 



SCENE I.] A MIDSUMMER NIGHT^S DREAM. 49 

Oheron. Fare thee well, nymph : ere he do leave this grove, 
Thou shalt fly him, and he shall seek thy love. — 

Enter Puck. 

Hast thou the flower there ? Welcome, wanderer. 

Puck. Ay, there it is. 

Oheron. I pray thee, give it me. 245 

I know a bank where the wild thyme blows, 
Where oxlips and the nodding violet grows. 
Quite over-canopied with luscious woodbine, 
With sweet musk-roses and with eglantine : 
There sleeps Titania sometime of the night, 250 

Lull'd in these flowers with dances and delight ; 
And there the snake throws her enamel'd skin. 
Weed wide enough to wrap a fairy in : 



Cxs., I, ii, 72.-242. thee = thou? Our Hamlet, I, i, 40; Abbott, 212.— 
nympli. Our Hamlet, III, i, 87. — As to the flowers in lines 246-249, see 
our notes on the famous flower passage in Lycidas, 140-151, — 246. where 
the wild. Abbott, 480. Malone, Keightly, Wright, White, Rolfe, and 
other prosodists ease their souls by making where a dissyllable ; thus; 

I know a bank whe-ere the wild thjone blows 1 

'*To me," says Furness, "it would be better ignominiously to adopt 
Pope's lohereon. . . . With my latest editorial breath I will denounce 
these dissyllables devised to supply the place of a pause." Furness would 
" let a pause, before where, take the place of a syllable," and surely this is 
immeasurably better than the drawling lohere : but why not cut the matter 
short by making the line a tetrameter (i.e. one of four accents) ? thus : 

I know I a bank | where the wild | thyme blows. 

The rhythm flows harmoniously. See line 7. — 247. grows. ' The image 
in the mind of one bed of oxlips and violets growing together'? — 248. 
luscious = sweet-scented [Wright] ? — Mid. Eng. lusty, pleasant, delicious ; 
suffix -ous. Skeat. Furness suggests that * luscious ' may be a trisyllable 
and the line an Alexandrine : 

Quite 6|ver can|opied | with lus|cious | wood bine. 

Others would squeeze 'luscious' into a monosyllable, lush. Abbott, 470. 
471. May an anapest take the place of the fourth foot ? thus : 

W W KJ W V-/V^ 

Quite o|ver can|opied [ with lus|cious wood bine. 

— 250. sometime of = sometimes during? Abbott, 176.-253. weed = 
dress? A. S. losed, garment. We still say ' widow's weeds.' 



50 A MIDSUMMER WIGHT ^S DREAM. [ACT II. 

And with, tlie juice of this I'll streak her eyes, 
And make her full of hateful fantasies. 255 

Take thou some of it, and seek through this grove : 
A sweet Athenian lady is in love 
With a disdainful youth : anoint his eyes ; 
But do it when the next thing he espies 
May be the lady. Thou shalt know the man 260 

By the Athenian garments he hath on. 
Effect it with some care, that he may prove 
More fond on her than she upon her love : 
And look thou meet me ere the first cock crow. 
Puck. Pear not, my lord, your servant shall do so. 

[^Exeunt. 

Scene II. Another Part of the Wood. 

Enter Titania with her train. 

Titania. Come, now a roundel and a fairy song ; 
Then, for the third part of a minute, hence ; 
Some to kill cankers in the musk-rose buds. 
Some war with reremice for their leathern wings, 
To make my small elves coats, and some keep back 5 

The clamorous owl that nightly hoots and wonders 
At our quaint spirits. Sing me now asleep ; 
Then to your offices and let me rest. 



263. fond = doting [Wright]? loving [Schmidt] ? ~* Fond ' is closely 
akin to vane, weathercock. Worcester. Hamlet, I, v, 99. 

Scene II. 1. roundel = circular dance [Wright] ? dance in which the 
parties join hands and form a ring [Staunton, Hudson] ? stanza that ends 
as it begins, the first line coming round again ? a kind of rhyming sonnet ? 
— See on round, II, i, 137, and in our Macbeth, IV, i, 130. — 2. third part 
of a minute. The fairy divisions of time are proportionately small. — 
3. cankers = cankerworms ? caterpillars ? — Sanskrit, karkara, hard ; 
Lat. cancer, crab (so named from its hard shell) : cancer, corroding 
tumor, so named from its ' eating ' into the flesh ; Eng. cankerworm, from 
its eating the life out of the rose. Skeat. See our Lycidas, 45.-4. rere- 
mice = bats ?— A. S. hror, active, motion; hreran, to agitate; hreremus, 
a bat (most likely named, like provincial Eng. flitter-mouse, from the 
flapping of its wings). A. S. mus, mouse; mys; root mus. Sansk. mush, 
to steal; mouse is the stealing animal. Skeat. — 6. clamorous = wail- 
ing [Walker]? Repeatedly so in Shakes.— Lat. clamare, to cry out.— 
7. quaint = fine? delicate? — See on quaintly in our Hamlet, II, i, 31, 
and especially our Mer. of Ven., II, iv, 6. — spirits = spiritings [Moberly] ? 
sports [Farmer, Warburton] ? fairies [Rolfe] ? — 8. offices = duties, em- 



SCENE II.] A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM. 51 



Fairies' Song. 
I. 



1 Fairy. You spotted snakes with double tongue, 

Thorny hedgehogs, he not seen; 10 

Newts and hlindiuornns, do no wrong. 
Come not near our fairy queen. 



CHORUS. 

Philomel, ivith melody 
Sing in our sweet lullaby ; 
Lulla, hdla, lidlaby ; lulla, lidla, kdlahy : 15 

Never harm, 

Nor spell nor charm, 
Come our lovely lady nigh; 
So, good-night, with lullaby. 



II. 

2 Fairy. Weaving spiders, come not here ; 20 

Hence, you long-legged spinners, hence ! 
Beetles black, approach not near :. 
Worm nor snail, do no offence. 
Philomel, with melody, etc. 

1 Fairy. Hence, away ! now all is well : 25 

One aloof stand sentinel. 

l^Exeimt Fairies. Titariia sleeps. 

ployments, functions? — 9. double = forked ? — 9-24. "Eight musical 
settings of this song are recorded." Furness. — 10. hedgehogs = 
urchins? porcupines? Macbeth, our ed., IV, i, 2. — 11. newts. Tliese 
small water lizards were supposed poisonous. — A. S. efeta, an eft, evet, 
or ewt. A. S. ef- for af-, Aryan root ap, river ; Sansk. ap, water. By a 
transfer of n of the article an, an ewt became a newt ! So a newt or eft is 
a 'water-animal,' or 'inhabitant of a stream.' Skeat. Similarly 'then 
once ' became the ' nonce ' ! — See the words ' newt ' and ' blind-worm ' in 
our Macbeth, IV, i, 14, 16. — 13. Philomel. Tereus cut out the tongue of 
his wife Procne and hid her in a wood, that he might marry her sister 
Philomel. He was changed into a hoopoe, Procne into a swallow, and 
Philomel into a nightingale. See Class. Diet. — 14. our sweet in first 
quarto; 'your sweet' in folios. — 20. weaving spiders. Are they all 
weavers? — Gr. a-nd-etv, spaein, to draw out; A. S. spinnan, to draw out 
(threads) ; spinther, spither, spider, successively ; -ther is a sufiRx denoting 
the agent. Skeat. —25, 26. Hence, away! Capell (1765?) first pointed 



52 A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM. [ACT II. 



Enter Oberon, and squeezes the flower on Titania's eyelids. 

Oberon. What thou seest when thou dost wake, 
Do it for thy true-love take ; 
Love and languish for his sake: 
Be it ounce, or cat, or bear, 30 

Pard, or boar with bristled hair, 
In thy eye that shall appear 
When thou wak'st, it is thy dear : 
Wake when some vile thing is near. \_Exit. 

Enter Lysander and Hermia. 



Ly Sander. Pair love, you faint with wand'ring in the wood ; 
And to speak troth, I have forgot our way : 36 

We'll rest us, Hermia, if you think it good. 
And tarry for the comfort of the day. 

Hermia. Be it so, Lysander : find you out a bed ; 
For I upon this bank will rest my head. 40 

Lysander. One turf shall serve as pillow for us both ; 
One heart, one bed, two bosoms, and one troth. 

Hermia. Nay, good Lysander ; for my sake, my dear, 
Lie further off yet ; do not lie so near. 

Lysander. 0, take the sense, sweet, of my innocence ! 45 
Love takes the meaning in love's conference. 
I mean, that my heart unto yours is knit 
So that but one heart can you make of it ; 
Two bosoms interchanged with an oath; 



out that this couplet is no part of the song. All concur. — 30. ounce. 
An animal leopard-like, but smaller. Lat./e/w uncia [Wright, Schmidt] ? 
Nasalized form of Persian yoiiz, yuz ; Fr. once. Skeat, Bracket. — cat = 
wild-cat? — 31. pard = panther? leopard? See our note in As You Like 
It, on II, vii, 150. — 35. with = because of? Abbott, 193. — 36. troth. 
See our Mer. of Ven., I, ii, 1. — 46. conference = conversation ? — 48. 
can you. This folio reading, attributing to Hermia alone the desire of 
separation, seems more significant than the ' we can ' of the quartos, and 
the emphasis falls better? — 49. interchanged. The quartos have inter- 
chained, which most editors have followed. Halliwell says it is * far more 
forcible and pertinent.' But White affirms that it is iveaker, 'conveying 
the comparatively common-place thought that the lovers' hearts were 
bound together ' ; whereas ' interchanged ' represents them ' as having 
been given to each other as the most solemn instruments are made, ' inter- 
changeably.' To which we add the following: 'bosoms interchained' is 
at best a repetition and enfeeblement of an idea already sufficiently ex- 
pressed ; but ' bosoms interchanged ' adds a new and stronger one. Note 



SCENE II.] A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM. 53 

So then two bosoms and a single troth. 50 

Then by your side no bed room me deny ; 
For lying so, Hermia, I do not lie. 

Hermia. Lysander riddles very prettily : 
Now much beshrew my manners and my pride, 
If Hermia meant to say Lysander lied. 65 

But, gentle friend, for love and courtesy 
Lie further off ; in human modesty, 
Such separation as may well be said 
Becomes a virtuous bachelor and a maid. 
So far be distant ; and, good-night, sweet friend : 60 

Thy love ne'er alter till thy sweet life end ! 

Lysander. Amen, amen, to that fair prayer, say I ; 
And then end life when I end loyalty ! 
Here is my bed : sleep give thee all his rest ! 64 

Hermia. With half that wish the wisher's eyes be press'd ! 

\_They sleep. 

Enter Puck. 

Puck. Through the forest have I gone, 
But Athenian find I none, 
On whose eyes I might approve 
This flower's force in stirring love. 
Night and silence. — Who is here ? 70 

Weeds of Athens he doth wear: 
This is he, my master said, 
Despised the Athenian maid ; 
And here the maiden, sleeping sound, 
On the dank and dirty ground 75 

Pretty soul ! she durst not lie 

also the result of the ' knitting ' ; the two hearts became one (line 48) ; but 
observe the result of the ' interchanging,' the two bosoms still remain two 
(line 50). See in confirmation of this interpretation our As You Like It, 
V, iv, 110; Sonnet cix, 4; Love's Labor's Lost, V, ii, 806, " Ever then my 
heart is in thy breast." Finally, eye hath not seen nor imagination con- 
ceived the modus operandi of chaining two bosoms together. — 51. bed 
room. Here White, Singer, Wright, Rolfe, Hudson, etc., use a hyphen, 
which perforce brings vip the image of a sleeping apartment, a bed-room! 
in the woods, too! See Webster's Int. Diet.; Standard Diet. — 54. be- 
shrew. See our ed. of the J/er. of Ven., II, vi, 52; Neio Eng. Diet. — 
61. ne'er alter = never alter thou? may [thy love] never alter? Abbott, 
364, 365. — 67. find. So all the early eds. except quarto 1. — The change 
from perfect tense to the present is natural, as in Macbeth, V, i, 1. — 
68. approve = prove? Our Macbeth, I, vi, 4. — 71. weeds. II, i, 253. — 
72. despised. Ellipsis? Abbott, 2^. — M.etxe'i -46&o«, 604. 



54 A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM. [ACT II. 

Near this lack-love, this kill-courtesy. 

Churl, upon thy eyes I throw 

All the power this charm doth owe. 

When thou wak'st, let love forbid 80 

Sleep his seat on thy eyelid ! 

So awake when I am gone ; 

For I must now to Oberon. \_Exit. 

Enter Demetrius and Helena running. 

Helena. Stay, though thou kill me, sweet Demetrius. 

Demetrius. I charge thee, hence, and do not haunt me 
thus. 85 

Helena. 0, wilt thou darkling leave me ? do not so. 

Demetrius. Stay, on thy peril : I alone will go. ^Exit. 

Helena. 0, I am out of breath in this fond chase ! 
The more my prayer, the lesser is my grace. 
Happy is Hermia, wheresoe'er she lies ; 90 

For she hath blessed and attractive eyes. 
How came her eyes so bright ? Not witii salt tears: 
If so, my eyes are oftener wash'd than hers. 
No, no, I am as ugly as a bear ; 

For beasts that meet me run away for fear : 95 

Therefore no marvel though Demetrius 
Do, as a monster, fly my presence thus. 
What wicked and dissembling glass of mine 
Made me compare with Hermia's sphery eyne? — 
But who is here ? Lysander ! on the ground ! 100 

Dead ? or asleep ? I see no blood, no wound. — 
Lysander, if you live, good sir, awake. 

Lysander. lAwaM7ig^ And run through fire I will for thy 
sweet sake. 



77. Another line that worries the critics. But if the reader will forget 
his prosody for a moment and read so as to bring out the sense, he will 
make four accents, and that is all that is essential ; thus : 

Near this | lack-love | this kill | courtesy. 

— 79. owe = possess? stand bound to pay? See our Macbeth, I, iii, 76. — 
86. darkling = in the dark? So in Par. Lost, iii, 39.-87. alone will 
go = will go alone? Abbott, 420, 421. — 88. fond = foolish ? affectionately 
foolish? See on * fond ' in our 3Ier. of Ven., II, ix, 26.-89. grace = favor 
(towards me) [Johnson, Wright] ? good fortune, happiness [Schmidt]? — 
97. as a monster = as if he fled from a monster? — 99. sphery = starry 
[Moberly] ? starlike [Wright] ? starlike, heavenly [Rolfe] ? — eyne. I, i, 



SCENE II.] A MIDSUMMER NIGHT^S DREAM. ^b 

Transparent Helena ! IvTature shows art, 

That through thy bosom makes me see thy heart. 105 

Where is Demetrius ? 0, how fit a word 

Is that vile name to perish on my sword ! 

Helena. Do not say so, Lysander ; say not so. 
What though he love your Hermia ? Lord, what though ? 
Yet Hermia still loves you : then be content. lio 

Lysander. Content with Hermia ! No ; I do repent 
The tedious minutes I with her have spent. 
JSTot Hermia but Helena I love : 
Who will not change a raven for a dove ? 
The will of man is by his reason sway'd ; 115 

And reason says you are the worthier maid. 
Things growing are not ripe until their season : 
So I, being young, till now ripe not to reason ; 
And touching now the point of human skill, 
Reason becomes the marshal to my will, 120 

And leads me to your eyes, where I o'erlook 
Love's stories written in love's richest book. 

Helena. Wherefore was I to this keen mockery born ? 
When at your hands did I deserve this scorn ? 
Is't not enough, is't not enough, young man, 125 

That I did never, no, nor never can. 
Deserve a sweet look from Demetrius' eye, 
But you must flout my insufficiency ? 
Good troth, you do me wrong, good sooth, you do, 
In such disdainful manner me to woo. 130 

But fare you well : perforce I must confess 
I thought you lord of more true gentleness. 
0, that a lady, of one man refus'd. 
Should of another therefore be abus'd ! [Exit. 

Lysander. She sees not Hermia. — Hermia, sleep thou 
there ; 135 

And never mayst thou come Lysander near ! 
For as a surfeit of the sweetest things 

242. — 104. Nature shows art. So the quartos. The folios vary. — 113. 
Helena I love. So 1st quarto. The others have ' now ' after ' Helena.' — 
118. ripe not = ripen not [Steevens, Schmidt, Wright, Moberly]? not ripe 
[Rowe, Rolfe]? — 119. point = height, pitch? See Hennj VIII, III, ii, 
223. — 120. marshal. See our Macbeth, II, i, 42. — 121. o'erlook = look 
over, read? — 128. flout. See our Macbeth, I, ii, 49. — 129. troth. Line 
36. See our Mer. of Ven., II, i, 1. — 132. gentleness = the spirit of a 
gentleman [Percy] ? chivalry ? — 133, 134, 140, 142. of = by ? Abbott, 170. 



56 A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DEE AM. [ACT II. SCENE II. 

The deepest loathing to the stomach brings, 
Or as the heresies that men do leave 

Are hated most of those they did deceive, 140 

So thou, my surfeit and my heresy, 
Of all be hated, but the most of me ! 
And, all my powers, address your love and might 
To honor Helen and to be her knight ! \_Exit. 

Hermia. \^AtvaMng^ Help me, Ly sander, help me ! do thy 
best 145 

To pluck this crawling serpent from my breast ! 
Ay me, for pity ! what a dream was here ! 
Lysander, look how I do quake with fear, 
Methought a serpent eat my heart away, 
And you sat smiling at his cruel prey. 150 

Lysander ! what ! remov'd ? Lysander ! lord ! 
What ! out of hearing ? gone ? no sound, no word ? 
Alack, where are you ? speak, an if you hear ; 
Speak, of all loves ! I swoon almost with fear. 
No ? then I will perceive you are not nigh 155 

Either death or you I'll find immediately. [Exit. 



— 147. Ay me. See I, i, 132. — 149. eat. Shakes, does not use the past- 
tense form ate. — 150. you sat. So the quartos; the folios, 'yet sat.' — 
153. an if. 'A strongly emphasized if.' Furness. See our Jul. Gses., I, 
ii, 257 ; Abbott, 105. — 154. of all loves = for the sake of all loves 
[Abbott, 169] ? by everything that is loving [Wright] ? = swoon. In the 
folio, * sound.' " As the folio was set up by at least four different sets of 
compositors, it is irrational to expect any uniformity of spelling. Accord- 
ingly we find this word, besides its present form ['sound'], spelled ' swoon,' 
'swoone,' 'swowne.'" Furness. He might have added 'swound,' and 
'swoonded' in Jul. Csss. — 156. Either. Monosyllabic force? II, i, 32. 
Abbott, 466. 



ACT III. SCENE I.] A MIDSUMMER MIGHT ^S DREAM. 57 



ACT III. \ 

Scene I. The Wood. Titania lying asleep. ! 

Enter Quince, Snug, Bottom, Flute, Snout, and 
Starveling. 

Bottom. Are we all met ? : 

Quince. Pat, pat; and here's a marvellous convenient ; 
place for our rehearsal. This green plot shall be our stage, 
this hawthorn brake our tiring-house ; and we will do it in | 
action as we will do it before the duke. 5 ] 

Bottom. Peter Quince, — 

Quince. What sayst thou, bully Bottom ? 

Bottom. There are things in this comedy of Pyramus and 
Thisby that will never please. First, Pyramus must draw a 
sword to kill himself, which the ladies cannot abide. How 
answer you that ? ii 

/Snout. By'r lakin, a parlous fear. : 

Starveling. I believe we must leave the killing out, ^yhen 
all is done. 

Bottom. Not a whit : I have a device to make all well. 

i 

ACT III. Scene I. 2. pat, pat = fitly? exactly? quite to the pur- 
pose? — A. S. plaettan, to strike ; Swedish pldtt, a tap, pat. " The sense \ 
is clearly due to an extraordinary confusion with Du. pas, fit, convenient, i 
in time." Skeat. So in Hamlet, III, iii, 73. — 4. tiring-house = attiring- 
house [Collier] ? dressing room [Wright] ? Hudson prints tiring-house. — i 
" The old Fr. substantive tire . . . means 'file' (of persons), ' series,' the I 
phrase a tire meaning 'in order,' 'in succession'; . . . the word, no 1 
doubt, also meant ' dress ' (as distinguished from mere ' clothing '), ' orna- 
ments.' " H. Mcol, quoted by Skeat in his Errata and Addenda, p. 778. 
— 7. bully. "A term of endearment and familiarity, originally applied 
to either sex; sweetheart, darling. Later, to men only, implying friendly ; 
admiration; good friend, fine fellow, 'gallant.' Often prefixed as a sort I 
of title to the name or designation of the person addressed, as in 'bully ; 
Bottom,' ' bully doctor.' Etymology obscure." M.m:x?^.Y& Neio Eng. Diet. \ 
— 12. lakin = little lady, the Virgin Mary. See our Tempest, III, iii, ; 
1. — parlous = perilous ? excessive ? wonderful ? See our As You Like 
It, III, ii, 41. — 13, M. when all is done = after all ? — 18. more better. 



58 A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM, [act III. 

Write me a prologue ; and let the prologue seem to say, we 
will do no harm with our swords, and that Pyramus is not 
killed indeed ; and, for the more better assurance, tell them 
that I Pyramus, am not Pyramus, but Bottom the weaver : 
this will put them out of fear. 20 

Quince. Well, we will have such a prologue ; and it shall 
be written in eight and six. 

Bottom. No, make it two more ; let it be written in eight 
and eight. 

Snout. Will not the ladies be af eard of the lion ? 25 

Starveling. I fear it, I promise you. 

Bottom. Masters, you ought to consider with yourselves : 
to bring in — God shield us ! — a lion among ladies is a 
most dreadful thing ; for there is not a more fearful wild 
fowl than your lion living ; and we ought to look to't. 30 

Snout. Therefore another prologue must tell he is not a 
lion. 

Bottom. Nay, you must name his name, and half his face 
must be seen through the lion's neck : and he himself must 
speak through, saying thus, or to the same defect, — ' Ladies,'' 
— or ^ Fair ladies, — / ivoidd tvish you,' — or 'I would request 
you,' — or 'I would entreat you, — not to fear, not to tremble : 
my life for yours. If you think I come hither as a lion, it were 
pity of my life : no, I am no such thing ; I am a man as other 
men are ' ; and there indeed let him name his name, and tell 
them plainly he is Snug the joiner. 41 



See our Tempest, I, ii, 19, 438; our Mer. of Ven., IV, i, 242; Abbott, 11. — 
22. eight and six = 8 lines plus 6 ; or 14 lines [Capell] ? alternate verses 
of 8 and 6 syllables [Malone, Wright, Hudson, Rolfe, etc.]? "There 
appears to have been no such prologue." Furness. — 25. af eard. A. S. 
afeared, frightened ; fr. a (a prefix denoting a state ?) and faeran, to 
frighten. i¥ac6e^/i, I, vii, 39. — 26. promise. Lat. pro-, forth; mittere, 
to send ; promittere, to send forth (as a declaration) . — 28. lion among 
ladies, etc. "At the christening of the eldest son of James I (James VI 
of Scotland, in 1594) ... a chariot should have been drawn in by a lion ; 
but because his presence might have brought some fear ... or the lights 
and torches might have commoved his tameness, it was thought meet that 
the Moor should supply that room." Somers Tracts. — 30. your lion = 
leo iste (without contempt) = that lion of yours. Spoken familiarly. 
Hamlet, IV, iii, 21. —39. pity of my life = all over with my life? As 
You Like It, I, ii, 48; V, iv, 53 ; Abbott, 174. — 41. tell them plainly he 
is Snug, etc. A similar incident is recorded as having taken place at 
Kenilworth in 1575, to the great amusement of Elizabeth. Scott utilizes it 
in his description : " Lambourne, not knowing his part, tore off his vizard, 
and swore he was none of Arion or Orion either, but honest Mike Lam- 



SCENE I.] A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'' S DREAM. 59 

Quince. Well, it shall be so. But there is two hard 
things ; that is, to bring the moonlight into a chamber ; for, 
you know, Pyramus and Thisby meet by moonlight. 

Snout. Doth the moon shine that night we play our 
play ? 45 

Bottom. A calendar, a calendar ! look in the almanac : 
find out moonshine, find out moonshine. 

Quince. Yes, it doth shine that night. 

Bottom. Why, then may you leave a casement of the 
great chamber window, where we play, open, and the moon 
may shine in at the casement. 51 

Quince. Ay ; or else one must come in with a bush of 
thorns and a lanthorn, and say he comes to disfigure, or to 
present, the person of Moonshine. Then, there is another 
thing: we must have a wall in the great chamber; for 
Pyramus and Thisby, says the story, did talk through the 
chink of a wall. 

Snout. You can never bring in a wall. What say you, 
Bottom ? 59 

Bottom. Some man or other must present Wall : and let 
him have some plaster, or some loam, or some rough-cast 
about him, to signify wall ; or let him hold his fingers thus, 
and through that cranny shall Pyramus and Thisby whisper. 

Quince. If that may be, then all is well. Come, sit 
down, every mother's son, and rehearse your parts. Pyra- 
mus, you begin : When you have spoken your speech, 
enter into that brake; and so everyone according to his 
cue. 

Enter Puck behind. 

Puck. What hempen homespuns have we swaggering here, 
So near the cradle of the fairy queen ? 



bourne," etc. — 42. there is two. Abbott, 335.-48. it doth shine. 

See the first ten lines of the play. Let Quince, not Shakespeare, blunder! 
All the better for that? — 52. a bush of thorns, etc. They fancied ' the 
man in the moon ' was he who gathered sticks on Saturday (Numbers, xv, 
32, 33), the bush being the bundle of sticks. See our ed. of The Tempest, 
II, ii, 126. — 53. lanthorn. Gr. xdixneLv, lanipeiu, to shine; ^aixnT-np, 
lampter, a light: Lat. lanterna, a lantern. Sometimes spelled lanthorn 
by a singular popular etymology, which took account of the horn some- 
times used for the sides of a lantern. Skeat. — 54. present = represent; 
act the role of? — Milton's II Penseroso, 99.-62. or let. The editors 
feel it incumbent on them to correct this blunder of Bottom and print 
* and let.' —67. cue = hint or prompt-word [Hudson] ? Lat. coda, cauda, 



60 A MIDSUMMER NIGHT^S DREAM. [ACT III. 

What, a play toward ! I'll be an auditor ; 70 

An actor too, perhaps, if I see cause. 

Quince. Speak, Pyramus. — Thisby, stand forth. 

Bottom. Thisby, the flowers of odious savors sweet, — 

Quince. Odors, odors. 

Bottom. odors savors sweet : 75 

So hath thy breath, my dearest Thisby dear. 
But hark, a voice ! stay thou but here awhile, 

And by and by I will to thee appear. \^Exit. 

Puck. A stranger Pyramus than e'er play'd here ! \_Exit. 

This. Must I speak now ? 80 

Quince. Ay, marry, must you ; for you must understand 
he goes but to see a noise that he heard, and is to come again. 

This. Most radiant Pyramus, most lily white of hue. 

Of color like the red rose on triumphant brier. 
Most brisky juvenal, and eke most lovely Jew, 85 

As true as truest horse, that yet would never tire, 
I'll meet thee, Pyramus, at Ninny's tomb. 

Quince. ' Ninus' tomb,' man : why, you must not speak 
that yet ; that you answer to Pyramus : you speak all your 
part at once, cues and all. — Pyramus, enter: your cue is past ; 
it is, ' never tire.' 91 

This. 0, — As true as truest horse, that yet would never 
tire. 

Enter Puck, and Bottom with an ass's head. 

Bottom. If I were fair, Thisby, I were only thine. — 
Quince. monstrous ! strange ! we are haunted. 
Pray, masters ! fly, masters ! Help ! 95 

[^Exeunt Quince, Snug, Flute, Snout, and Starveling. 

Fr. queue, a tail. See our ed. of Hamlet, II, ii, 545. Murray in his New 
Eng. Diet, questions this derivation of cue. — 70. toward = approaching? 
See our Hamlet, I, i, 77; As You Like It, V, iv, 35.-73-79. odious 
savors, etc., etc. Comically twisted ; but not half so funny as the grave 
attempts of the German and some other critics to straighten it all. Shade 
of Dogberry ! — odious =^ odorous ? Much Ado, III, v, 15. — 79. a stranger 
Pyramus, etc. Puck anticipates the reappearance of Pyramus with an 
ass-head? — 85. juvenal = youth? Sansk. yuvan, young, dyuna, sport- 
ive; fr. root Div or dyu, to play, sport; 'L^it. juvenis, a young person; 
juvenalis o-£ juvenilis, youthful. White and Riddle. — eke = also. A. S. 
ecan, to augment; eac, and. The word was obsolescent, "and is used by 
Shakespeare only in burlesque passages." Halliwell. — 8S. Ninus. He 
was husband of Semiramis and the reputed founder of Nineveh, about 
2182 B.C. His widow is said to have built his tomb of incredible size. See 
Class Diet.— 92. ass's head. Douce (1807) suggested that Shakespeare 



SCEN-E I.] A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM. 61 

Puck. I'll follow you — Pll lead you — about — around, 

Througli bog, through, bush, through brake, through brier : 
Sometime a horse Til be, sometime a hound, 

A hog, a headless bear, sometime a fire ; 
And neigh, and bark, and grunt, and roar, and burn, lOO 

Like horse, hound, hog, bear, fire at every turn. {^Exit. 

Bottom. Why do they run away ? this is a knavery of them 
to make me afeard. 

Enter Snout. 

Snout. Bottom, thou art changed! what do I see on 
thee ? 105 

Bottom. What do you see ? you see an ass-head of your 
own, do you ? [_Exit Snout. 

Reenter Quince. 

Quince. Bless thee. Bottom ! bless thee ! thou art trans- 
lated. [Exit. 

Bottom. I see their knavery ; this is to make an ass of me ; 
to fright me, if they could. But I will not stir from this 
place, do what they can. I will walk up and down here, 
and I will sing, that they shall hear I am not afraid. 

\_Sings. 

got this idea from Scot's Discoverie of Witchcraft (1584), where there is a 
recipe for the manufacture of a magic oil. With it " anoint the heads of 
the standei'S by, and they shall seem to have horses' or asses' heads." 
The possibility of such transformation was quite generally believed in. — 
97. I'll lead you — about — around. We adopt Furness' suggestion 
in place of the folio's ' He leade you about a Round.' ' Round ' is a circular 
dance? II, i, 137; ii, 1: hardly appropriate here? — 98-101. Various 
sources of the idea of such transformations are pointed out. See those of 
Proteus described in Virgil's Georgics, iv, 406-410. "Divers forms and 
features of wild beasts will be put on to mock you. He will change sud- 
denly to a bristly boar, and a grim black tiger, a scaly dragon, and a 
lioness with tawny mane; or he will send forth the sharp crackling of 
flame, ... or will trickle away into unsubstantial water and be gone." — 
99. fire = Jack o' lantern, Will-o'-the-wisp, ignis fatuus (fool's fire), or 
' Friar's lantern,' as Milton calls it. — 100, 101 . Note in these lines how the 
acts and agents correspond, each to each. See onr Hamlet, III, i, 151.— 
106. you see an ass-head of your own. ' A piece of familiar banter 
of the time,' ' a trite vulgarism ' ? Bottom of course is all unconscious of 
his own looks.— 108. translated = transformed ? I, i, 191. — Is there 
not here an ironical suggestion, by way of joke, that Bottom is glorified 
as Enoch was, transformed to something celestial? See Hebrews, :s.\, 5. — 
113. that they shall hear. Abbott, 348. — 114. ousel cock = male 
blackbird [Wright] ? A species of European thrush. A. S. osle ; not akin 



62 A MIDSUMMER NIGHT^S DREAM. [act III. 

The ousel cock so black of hue, 

With orange-tawny hill, 115 

The throstle with his note so true, 

The wren with little quill, — 

Titania. [Awaking"] What angel wakes me from my flow- 
ery bed ? 

Bottom. \_Sings'\ 

Thejinch, the sparrow, and the lark. 

The plain-song cuckoo gray, 120 

Whose note full many a man doth mark, 
And dares not answer nay ; — 

for, indeed, who would set his wit to so foolish a bird ? who 
would give a bird the lie, though he cry ' cuckoo ' never so ? 

Titania. I pray thee, gentle mortal, sing again : 
Mine ear is much enamour'd of thy note ; 
So is mine eye enthralled to thy shape ; 
And thy fair virtue's force perforce doth move me 
On the first view to say, to swear, I love thee. 130 

Bottom. Methinks, mistress, you should have little reason 
for that: and yet, to say the truth, reason and love keep 
little company together now-a-days ; the more the pity that 
some honest neighbors will not make them friends. Nay, I 
can gleek upon occasion. 136 

Titayiia. Thou art as wise as thou art beautiful. 

to Fr. oiseaii. — 115. orange-tawny. See on I, ii, 82. — 116. throstle = 
thrush? See our ed. of Mer. of Ven., I, ii, 52. — 117. wren. Macbeth, 
IV, ii, 9. — quill = musical pipe? — Ger. kegel, a pin ; Fr. quiUe, a skittle. 
Lycidas, 188.-120. plain-song = of monotonous note, single melody 
[Wright]? plaintive song? — Gr. Trkrjaa-eiv, plessein, to strike: fr. base 
PLAK, to strike; Lat. plangere (nasalized form), to beat the breast as a 
sign of grief ; planctus, lamentation ; Fr. se plaindere, to mourn ; plainte, 
complaint. Skeat, Bracket, etc. "The cuckoo . . . begins to sing early 
in the season, with the interval of a 'minor third.' . . . From this bird 
has been derived the ' minor scale ' . . . the cuckoo's couplet being the 
'minor third' sung downv^ard." — 123. set his wit = oppose his wit 
[Rolfe]? match his wit against [Wright] ? — 124. cry cuckoo. Sansk. 
tukila; Lat. cuculus ; Fr. coueou. Imitative ? — never so = ever so 
much [Rolfe]? never so much? — 128. enthralled. 1,1,136.-130. In 
some early editions, this line and line 128 have exchanged places. — 135. 
gleek = jest [Rolfe]? gibe, jeer; in modern slang or colloquial dialect, 
' chaff ' [Cowden-Clarkes] ? play or joke : gleek is the name of a game of 
cards [Moberly] ? — old English for ' jeer ' [White] ? scoff [Schmidt] ? make 
sport [Int. Die.]? —Pvoh. fr. Icel. leika, to play a trick on, with the prefix 



SCENE I.] A MIDSUMMER NIGHT ^S DREAM. 63 

Bottom. Not so, neither ; but if I had wit enough to get 
out of this wood, I have enough to serve mine own turn. 

Titania. Out of this wood do not desire to go : 140 

Thou shalt remain here, whether thou wilt or no. 
I am a spirit of no common rate : 
The summer still doth tend upon my state ; 
And I do love thee : therefore, go with me ; 
I'll give thee fairies to attend on thee, 145 

And they shall fetch thee jewels from the deep, 
And sing while thou on pressed flowers dost sleep: 
And I will purge thy mortal grossness so. 
That thou shalt like an airy spirit go. 
Peas-blossom ! Cobweb ! Moth ! and Mustard-seed ! 150 

Enter Peas-blossom, Cobweb, Moth, and Mustard-seed. 

Peas-blossom. Eeady. 

Cobweb. And I. 

Moth. And I. 

Mustard-seed. And I. 

All. Where shall we go ? 

Titania. Be kind and courteous to this gentleman ; 
Hop in his walks, and gambol in his eyes ; 
Peed him with apricocks and dewberries. 
With purple grapes, green figs, and mulberries : 155 

The honey-bags steal from the humble-bees. 
And for night tapers crop their waxen thighs 
And light them at the fiery glow-worm's eyes, 
To have my love to bed and to arise ; 

ge-; akin to A. S. geldcan, Swed. leka, to play. Web. Int. Diet.— 14:1. 
whether. I, i, 69. — 142. rate. Our Tempest, I, ii, 92 ; our 3fe7\ of Yen., 
I, i, 127. — 146. jewels. " Reflecting gems, Which woo'd the slimy bot- 
tom of the deep." Richard III, I, iv, 31, 32. — 151. Grant White was the 
first to prefix the fairies' names here, instead of reading as follows, ''Fair. 
Ready; and I, and I, and I." Capell prefixed All to "Where shall we 
go ? " — 154. apricocks. This is the earlier spelling, and it ought to have 
been retained. The word has drifted through curious changes, as shown 
in Skeat, Bracket, Mwvxty, and Webster. Lat. prae, beforehand ; coquere, 
to ripen, to cook; prae-cox, early ripe; p7xie-coquus, precocious; whence 
Mid. Gr. n-paiKo/ctov, praikokion, apricot; whence Arab, al-, the, barquq, 
al-barquq, al-birquq, the apricot; whence Port, albricoque, Span, albari- 
coque; whence Fr. alricot, Early Eng. apricock ; Eng. apricot. — dew- 
berries =: fruit of the ' blue bramble ' ? — 156. humble-bees. To humble 
is to hum, or more literally to ' hum often,' as it is the frequentative form, 
standing for humm-le. Skeat.— 15S. fiery glow-worm's eyes. A 



64 A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM. [act III. 

And pluck the wings from painted butterflies 160 

To fan the moonbeams from his sleeping eyes. 
Nod to him, elves, and do him courtesies. 

Peas-blossom. Hail, mortal ! 

Cobweb. Hail ! 

Moth. Hail! 165 

Mustard-seed. Hail ! 

Bottom. I cry your worship's mercy, heartily : I beseech 
your worship's name. 

Cobiveb. Cobweb. 

Bottom. I shall desire you of more acquaintance, good 
Master Cobweb : if I cut my finger, I shall make bold with 
you. — Your name, honest gentleman ? 172 

Peas-blossom. Peas-blossom. 

Bottom. I pray you, commend me to Mistress Squash, 
your mother, and to Master Peascod, your father. Good 
Master Peas-blossom, I shall desire you of more acquaint- 
ance too. — Your name, I beseech you, sir ? 

Mustard-seed. Mustard-seed. 178 

Bottom. Good Master Mustard-seed, I know your patience 
well : that same cowardly, giant-like ox-beef hath devoured 
many a gentleman of your house. I promise you your kin- 
dred hath made my eyes water ere now. I desire you of 
more acquaintance, good Master Mustard-seed. 183 

Titania. Come, wait upon him ; lead him to my bower. 

The moon, methinks, looks with a watery eye ; 
And when she weeps, weeps every little flower. 

Lamenting some enforced chastity. 187 

Tie up my love's tongue, bring him silently. \_Exeunt. 



poet's license here? See Farness. — 163. Hail, mortal! See on line 
151. — 167. cry . . . mercy = beg pardon of? So in As You Like It, III, 
V, 61, and often in Shakesj^eare. — 170. you of. See our Me7\ of Ven., 
iv, i, 393, and Abbott, 174. — 171. cut, etc. 'A cobweb being sometimes 
used to stanch blood.' Wright. — 174. Squash = a soft unripe peascod. 
Skeat. Our American vegetable squash has its name from the Indian 
asquatasquash. Cent. Diet. — 175. Peascod. As You Like It, II, iv, 46. 
— 179. patience. "Can there be a better proof of Mustard-seed's long- 
suffering patience than that, being strong enough to force tears from 
Bottom's eyes, he permits himself to be devoured by a big cowardly Ox- 
beef"? Furness. — 185. moon, etc. See II, i, 159; and our ed. of 
Macbeth, III, v, 23, 24. — 187. enforced chastity = violated chastity 
[Rolf e] ? compulsory maidenhood? "The rathe primrose dies forsaken, 
says Milton; type of maidens who live and die unloved." Moberly. 
"Pale primroses That die unmarried." Wint. Tale, IV, iv, 122,123.— 
188. love's. Pope substituted this for lover. — " It is insinuated that, how- 



SCEXE II.] A MIDSUMMER NIGHT^S DREAM. Q$ 



Scene II. Another Part of the Wood. 

Enter Oberon. 

Oheron. I wonder if Titania be awak'd ; 
Then, what it was that next came in her eye, 
Which she must dote on in extremity. 

Enter Puck. 

Here comes my messenger. — 

How now, mad spirit ! 
What night-rule now about this haunted grove ? 5 

Puck. My mistress with a monster is in love. 
Near to her close and consecrated bower, 
While she was in her dull and sleeping hour, 
A crew of patches, rude mechanicals. 

That work for bread upon Athenian stalls, 10 

Were met together to rehearse a play 
Intended for great Theseus' nuptial day. 
The shallowest thick-skin of that barren sort. 
Who Pyramus presented, in their sport 
Porsook his scene and enter'd in a brake : 15 

When I did him at this advantage take, 
An ass's ilole I fixed on his head : 
Anon his Thisbe must be answered, 
And forth my mimic comes. When they him spy. 
As wild geese that the creeping fowler eye, 20 



ever deeply Titania may be enamoured with Bottom's fair large ears, and 
her eye enthralled to his shape, she can find no corresponding charm in 
his talk? There is a limit even to the powers of the magic love-juice; 
Bottom's tongue must he tied." Fiirness. 

Scene II. 3. in extremity = to the utmost? — Gr. e/c, ek, Lat. ex, 
out; ex^er, outward ; extremus, outmost, uttermost, utmost. — 5. night- 
rule = night-order, revelry, nightly diversion [Wright, Schmidt] ? such 
conduct as generally 7^ules in the night [Nares] ? revel, noisy sport 
[Dyce]? — 9. patches = fools [Wright]? clowns [Rolfe] ? ill-dressed fel- 
low, tatterdemalions [Johnson, Furness] ? See our 3fe?'. of Ven., II, v, 45 ; 
Macbeth, V, iii, 15. — mechanicals = artisans ? Jul. Cses., 1, i, 3. — 
13. barren sort = stupid company [Wright] ? — thick-sliin. " Some . . . 
suppose creatures are brutish more or less, according as their skin is 
thicker or thinner." Holland's Trans, of Pliny, i, p. 346. — 14. pre- 
sented. Ill, i, 54. — 15. in. Abbott, 159. —17. nole = noddle? pate? 
"A grotesque word for head. . . . The A. S. knoll, the top of anything. 



66 A MIDSUMMER WIGHT'S DREAM. [ACT III. 

Or russet-pated choughs, many in sort, 

Rising and cawing at the gun's report, 

Sever themselves and madly sweep the sky, 

So, at his sight, away his fellows fly ; 

And, at our stamp, here o'er and o'er one falls ; 25 

He murder cries and help fromi Athens calls. 

Their sense thus weak, lost with their fears thus strong, 

Made senseless things begin to do them wrong ; 

For briers and thorns at their apparel snatch ; 

Some sleeves, some hats, from yielders all things catch. 30 

I led them on this distracted fear. 

And left sweet Py ramus translated there : 

When in that moment, so it came to pass, 

Titania waked, and straightway lov'd an ass. 

Oberon. This falls put better than I could devise. 35 

But hast thou yet latcli'd the Athenian's eyes 
With the love-juice, as I did bid thee do ? 

Pack. I took him sleeping, — that is finish'd too, — 
And the Athenian woman by his side ; 
That, when he wak'd, of force she must be ey'd. 40 

Enter Hermia and Demetrius. 

Oberon. Stand close : this is the same Athenian. 

Puck. This is the woman, but not this the man. 

Demetrius. 0, why rebuke you him that loves you so ? 
Lay breath so bitter on your bitter foe. 

Hermia. Now I but chide ; but I should use thee worse, 45 
For thou, I fear, hast given me cause to curse. 



is the same word." [Wright]? — 21. choughs = jackdaws? See our 
Macbeth, III, iv, 125. — russet-pated = of gray-colored heads [Wright]? 
See Furness. — 25. at our stamp. Our and stamp are puzzling, ' Our ' 
may be for my, meaning the ' stamp ' of which we spirits are capable (as 
the ground 'rocks' beneath their feet in IV, i, 83). 'Stamp' is perhaps 
the sound of the feet (of the animals in III, i, 98, 99) striking the ground in 
pursuit. — Another possible interpretation occurs : ' Stamp ' in Shakespeare 
is impression, print, or j)icture. The * patches ' were frightened first at 
the semblance (stamp) of an ass-head on a human form, and next at the 
image (stamp) assumed by Puck of horse, hound, hog, headless bear, or 
fire. — Still another: At our stamp (in our stampede, i.e. stampede of 
us, sudden scampering of our feet striking the insecure footing amid bogs, 
bushes, brakes, and briers) they tumble over each other. Test ! — 
30. yielders. "I was not born a yielder," 1 Henry IV, V, iii, 11.— 
36. — latched = caught? See our Macbeth, IV, iii, 195. —40. of force. 
Only used in connection with must. Rolfe. — 44. breath = speech ? 



SCENE II.] A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM. 67 

If thou hast slain Lysander in his sleep, 

Being o'er shoes in blood, plunge in the deep, 

And kill me too. 

The sun was not so true unto the day 50 

As he to me : would he have stolen away 

From sleeping Hermia ? I'll believe as soon 

This whole earth may be bor'd, and that the moon 

May^through the centre creep, and so displease 

Her brother's noontide with the antipodes. 55 

It cannot be but thou hast murder'd him ; 

So should a murderer look, so dead, so grim. 

Demetrius. So should the murder'd look, and so should I, 
Pierc'd through the heart with your stern cruelty : 
Yet you, the murderer, look as bright, as clear, 60 

As yonder Venus in her glimmering sphere. 

Hermia. What's this to my Lysander ? where is he ? 
Ah, good Demetrius, wilt thou give him me ? 

Demetrius. I had rather give his carcass to my hounds. 

Hermia. Out, dog ! out, cur ! thou driv'st me past the 
bounds 
Of maiden's patience. Hast thou slain him, then ? 66 

Henceforth be never number'd among men ! 
0, once tell true, tell true, even for my sake ! 
Durst thou have look'd upon him being awake. 
And hast thou kill'd him sleeping ? brave touch ! 70 

Could -not a worm, an adder, do so much ? 
An adder did it ; for with doubler tongue 
Than thine, thou serpent, never adder stung. 

Demetrius. You spend your passion on a mispris'd mood : 



* Breath ' is ' too cool ' in Macbeth, II, i, 61. —48. the deep. Maginn, Dyce, 
Phelps, Hudson, Keightley, and, it is alleged, Coleridge, have changed this 
to knee-deep ; but divers flippantly answer at once that to plunge in any- 
thing knee-deep could have but one cause and one consequence, a ' cracked ' 
cranium ! — Macb., Ill, iv, 136-138. — 49. May a pause with dramatic action 
fill out this line ? See our Hamlet, I, i, 129, 132, 135.-55. antipodes. Our 
Mer. of Yen., V, i, 127.— 57. dead - deadly [Schmidt]? pale [Capell] ? 
Pope, Hudson and others change dead to dread. Well? — 61. sphere = 
orbit [Wright] ? hollow transparent shell like a bubble, in which the 
planet was imagined to be fastened ? See our ed. of Hymn on the Na- 
tivity, stanza xiii. Milton has ' glimmering orbs,' in stanza vi. — 70. brave 
touch = test or proof of bravery [Schmidt] ? cunning feat or trick [Stee- 
vens, Hudson]? gallant action? — ^oi^c/i = stroke [Johnson]? exploit 
[Moberly] ? — 71. worm = small serpent ? See our Macbeth, II, iv, 29. — 
72. doubler = more forked ; more deceitful; Lat. bilinguis? In II, ii, 9, 
'double' is 'forked.' But see our Mer. of Ven., V, i, 233.-74. on = in 



68 A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM. [ACT III. 

I am not guilty of Lysander's blood ; 75 

]^or is he dead, for aught that I can tell. 

Hermia. I pray thee, tell me then that he is well. 

Demetrius. An if I could, what should I get therefore ? 

Hermia. A privilege never to see me more. 
And from thy hated presence part I [so] : 80 

See me no more, whether he be dead or no. \_Exit. 

Demetrius. There is no following her in this fierce vein : 
Here therefore for a while I will remain. 
So sorrow's heaviness doth heavier grow 
For debt that bankrupt sleep doth sorrow owe ; 85 

Which now in some slight measure it will pay. 
If for his tender here I make some stay. \_Lies down and sleeps. 

Oheroyi. What hast thou done ? thou hast mistaken quite 
And laid the love-juice on some true-love's sight : 
Of thy misprision must perforce ensue 90 

Some true love turn'd and not a false turn'd true. 

Puck. Then fate o'errules, that, one man holding troth, 
A million fail, confounding oath on oath. 

Oberon. About the wood go swifter than the wind. 
And Helena of Athens look thou find : 95 

All fancy-sick she is and pale of cheer. 
With sighs of love; that cost the fresh blood dear. 
By some illusion see thou bring her here : 
I'll charm his eyes against she do appear. 

[Abbott, 180] ? — misprised = misapprehended [Hudson] ? mistaken? — 
Lat. minus, less ; Fr. mes, badly ; Lat. pretium, price ; Low Lat. pretiare, 
to prize, value; O. Fr. mesprisei^, Fr. mepriser, to undervalue? (or A. S. 
prefix mis-, amiss, ill, wrongly; Lat. prendere, fr. prehendere, to take, 
seize ; Fr. meprendre, to be mistaken) ? — on a misprised mood = in a 
mistaken mood [Johnson] ? in a mistaken humor or caprice, a temper of 
mind arising from a mistake [Wright] ? in a mistaken capricious fancy 
[Malone, Rolfe] ? in a mistaken manner [Steevens] ? Rolfe remarks that 
Shakes, "uses 'misprised' nowhere else." But it is found twice in As 
You Like It (I, i, 153; ii, 161) in the sense of overlooked, or undervalued. 

— 80. [so]. So was supplied by Pope? Needed for rhyme? All concur. 

— 81. whether. I, i, 69. — 85. for debt, etc. = because bankrupt sleep 
owes it so heavy a debt [Moberly] ? — 87. tender. This and line 85 
'smell,' says Marshall, 'of an attorney's office.' — 90. misprision. An- 
other law M^ord ; but perhaps not used here in a technical sense. Sea line 
74. —92. one man holding troth = while one man keeps faith [Wright] ? 

— 93. confounding = breaking, destroying? — See our Mer. of Ven., 
Ill, ii, 271. — 96. fancy = love? I, i, 155. — cheer = look? face? See 
our Me7\ of Ven., Ill, ii, .307. — 97. blood, etc. On the old superstition 
that sighs draw blood from the heart, see our Hamlet, IV, vii, 121 ; Mer. 
of Ven., 1, i, 82; 2 Henry VI, III, ii, 60-63. — As to the form 'costs,' J6- 
6oi5«, 247.— 99. against. Used metaphorically to express time ? Abbott. 



SCENE II.j A MIDSUMMER NIGHT^S DREAM. 69 

Puck. I go, I go ; look how I go, 100 

Swifter than arrow from the Tartar's bow. \Exit. 

Oberon. Flower of this purple dye, 

Hit with Cupid's archery, 
Sink in apple of his eye. 
When his love he doth espy, lOo 

Let her shine as gloriously 
As the Venus of the sky. 
When thou wak'st, if she be by. 
Beg of her for remedy. 

Enter Puck. 

Puck. Captain of our fairy band, 110 

Helena is here at hand ; 
And the youth, mistook by me. 
Pleading for a lover's fee. 
Shall Ave their fond pageant see ? 
Lord, what fools these mortals be ! 115 

Oberon. Stand aside : the noise they make 

Will cause Demetrius to awake. 

Puck. Then will two at once woo one ; 

That must needs be sport alone ; 
And those things do best please me 120 

That befall preposterously. 



Enter Lysander and Helena. 

Lysander. Why should you think that I should woo in 
scorn ? 



142.-101. Tartar's bow. The swiftness of Tartar arrows was famous, 
if not proverbial. — 103. II, i, 1G3. — 114. lover's fee = three kisses [Hal- 
liwell] ? estate, right by virtue of liis title as lover [Furness] ? — 114. fond 
= foolish? affectionate? See II, ii, 88; Hamlet, I, v, 9.9; As You Like It, 
II, iii, 7. — pageant = theatrical show? See our Mei\ of Ven., I, i, 11; 
As You Like It, III, iv, 48.-119. needs. Abbott, 125. — alone = above 
all things [Abbott]? all by itself, unparalleled [Collier] ? — 121. prepos- 
terously. Lat. p?'93, before ; post, posterus, after ; praeposterus, hind 
side before, out of the natural or reasonable course. — 122. should woo = 
ought to? Furness inclines to this interpretation, saying that " the use of 
'should ' in Shakes, is of the subtlest." — Abbott, 328, cites this as an in- 



70 A MIDSUMMER NIGHf^S DREAM. [acT III. 

Scorn and derision never come in tears : 
Look, when I vow, I weep ; and vows so born, 

In their nativity all truth appears. 125 

How can these things in me seem scorn to you, 
Bearing the badge of faith, to prove them true ? 

Helena. You do advance your cunning more and more. 

When truth kills truth, devilish-holy fray ! 
These vows are Hermia's : will you give her o'er ? 130 

Weigh oath with oath, and you will nothing weigh : 
Your vows to her and me, put in two scales, 
Will even weigh, and both as light as tales. 

Ly Sander. I had no judgment when to her T swore. 

Helena. Nor none, in my mind, now you give her o'er. 135 

Lysander. Demetrius loves her, and he loves not you. 

Demetrius. \_Awa'king'] Helen, goddess, nymph, perfect, 
divine ! 
To what, my love, shall I compare thine eyne ? 
Crystal is muddy. 0, how ripe in show 
Thy lips, those kissing cherries, tempting grow ! 140 

That pure congealed white, high Taurus' snow, 
Fann'd with the eastern wind, turns to a crow 
When thou hold'st up thy hand. 0, let me kiss 
This princess of pure white, this seal of bliss ! 

Helena. spite ! hell ! I see you all are bent 145 

To set against me for your merriment : 
If you were civil and knew courtesy, 
You would not do me thus much injury. 
Can you not hate me, as I know you do. 
But you must join in souls to mock me too ? 150 



stance of * should ' used to denote (like sollen in German) a statement not 
made by the speaker. — 123. come. So the quartos. The folio has 
comes. — 124. vows so born = vows being so born [Wright]? — 124, 125. 
My paraphrase is: "Vows, thus born, appear from their very nativity to 
be all truth." Furness. — 127. badge. "This is an allusion," says 
Steeveus, " to the badges {i.e. family crests) anciently worn on the sleeves 
of servants and retainers." — 129. truth, etc. "If Lysander's present 
protestations are true, they destroy the truth of his former vows to Her- 
mia, and the contest between these two truths, which in themselves are 
holy, must in the end be devilish and end in the destruction of both" 
[Wright] ?— 133. tales = idle words [Wright] ? pure fiction [Furness] ? — 
140. cherries. "These ' kissing cherries ' gave Herrick a stock in trade 
for half a dozen poems." Knight. — 141. Taurus. The mighty range of 
Taurus stretches west from the Euphrates nearly 400 miles, separating 
Cilicia from Cappadocia. Many of its peaks are covered with almost per- 
petual snow. — 141-143. Like Winter's Tale, Act IV, scene iii. — 150. in 



SCENE II.] A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM. 71 

If you were men, as men you are in show, 

You would not use a gentle lady so ; 

To vow, and swear, and superpraise my parts, 

When I am sure you hate me with your hearts. 

You both are rivals, and love Hermia ; 155 

And now both rivals, to mock Helena : 

A trim exploit, a manly enterprise, 

To conjure tears up in a poor maid's eyes 

With your derision ! none of noble sort 

Would so offend a virgin, and extort 160 

A poor soul's patience, all to make you sport. 

Lysander. You are unkind, Demetrius ; be not so ; 
For you love Hermia ; this you know I know : 
And here, with all good will, with all my heart. 
In Hermia's love I yield you up my part ; 165 

And yours of Helena to me bequeath. 
Whom I do love and will do till my death. 

Helena. Never did mockers waste more idle breath. 

Demetrius. Lysander, keep thy Hermia ; I will none : 
If e'er I lov'd her, all that love is gone. 170 

My heart to her but as guest-wise sojourn'd. 
And now to Helen is it home return' d, 
There to remain. 

Lysander. Helen, it is not so. 

Demetrius. Disparage not the faith thou dost not know, 
Lest, to thy peril, thou abide it dear. 175 

Look, where thy love comes ; yonder is thy dear. 

souls = heart and soul, heartily [Steevens, Wright]? — 156. to mock = 
with a view to mock? in mocking? — 157. trim. A. S. t7'um, firm, strong, 
trymian, to make firm, also to set in order, array : " to trim a boat is to 
make it steady; hence to put it in perfect order." Skeat. The word is 
often used ironically. A trim exploit = a pretty achievement. — exploit = 
a great act; deed. Lat. ex, out, or negative like un- ; plicare, to fold; 
explicare, to unfold ; expHcatwn, something unfolded or displayed ; Fr. 
exploit, an act. — 158. conjure. See our Macbeth, IV, i, 50. — 160. ex- 
tort = take away (patience) ? make impatient? — Lat. ex, out; torquere, 
tortmn, to twist, to draw away by forcible twisting, wrench away. — Allen 
suggests that patience (Lat. pati, to suffer) may mean * suffering,' and 
' extort patience ' may be ' produce suffering by torture.' Quoted by Fur- 
ness. — 169. I will none = I desire her not ? Abbott, 53. Scriptural? — 
"Ye have set at nought all my counsel, and toould none of my reproof," 
Prov., i, 25. " Ay, sir ; but she will none." Rom. and Jul., Ill, v, 138. — 
171. to her, etc. " May not this be like a familiar Greek construction? 
My heart \_went aioay from its proper home] to her, and sojourned [with 
her] merely as a guest. Confirmed by: Now it has returned to me." 
Quoted by Furness. — 175. abide = answer for, stand the consequences 



72 A MtDSUMMEB NIGHT^S DREAM. [act III. 



Enter Hermia. 

Hermia. Dark night, that from the eye his function takes, 
The ear more quick of apprehension makes ; 
Wherein it doth impair the seeing sense, 
It pays the hearing double recompense. 180 

Thou art not by mine eye, Lysander, found ; 
Mine ear, I thank it, brought me to thy sound. 
But why unkindly didst thou leave me so ? 

Lysander. Why should he stay, whom love doth press to 
go ? 184 

Hermia. What love could press Lysander from my side ? 

Lysander. Lysander's love, that would not let him bide ; 
Fair Helena, who more engilds the night 
Than all yon fiery oes and eyes of light. 
Why seek'st thou me ? could not this make thee know. 
The hate I bear thee made me leave thee so ? 190 

Hermia. You speak not as you think : it cannot be. 

Helena. Lo, she is one of this confederacy ! 
Now I perceive they have conjoin'd all three 
To fashion this false sport, in spite of me. 
Injurious Hermia ! most ungrateful maid ! 195 

Have you conspir'd, have you with these contriv'd 
To bait me Avith this foul derision ? 
Is all the counsel that we two have shar'd. 
The sisters' vows, the hours that we have spent, 
When we have chid the hasty -footed time 200 

For parting us, — 0, is all forgot ? 



of? abide it dear = pay dearly for it? — The early editions, except the 
1st quarto, have abide. Yet nearly all the editors read ahy. Ahy is not 
elsewhere in Shakespea7'e, unless in quarto 1, line 334 ; but abide occurs also 
in Jul. Cass., Ill, i, 95 ; and ii, 112. Skeat tells us that abide is a mere cor- 
ruption of uby (A. S. a-, off, and bicgau, to buy, dbicgan, to redeem, to 
pay for). Doubtless he is right, but doubtless Shakes, wrote abide in 
nearly the same sense, and are we bound to correct his error, if it be an 
error? Furthermore, abide seems to us to have been suggested by so- 
journed, guest, and home. — 188. oes = circles? orbs? stars? — Shakes, 
repeatedly uses O for circle. Thus, in Henry V, Prol. 13, he calls the 
Globe Theatre ' this wooden O.' — 194 = in spite of == to the mortification 
of [Schmidt] ? in derision of [Rolfe] ? in defiance of? notwithstanding? — 
195. injurious = insulting? — II, i, 44. — 197. bait = worry? See our 
ed. of Jul. Cses., IV, iii, 28. — 200. chid. Shakespeare uses also chidden, 
Jul. Cses., I, ii, 180. — See in Coleridge's Christabel the lines beginning, 
" Alas, they had been friends in youth! " 

202. O, is all forgot. Says Hudson, " Gibbon in his account of the 



SCENE II.] A MIDSUMMER NIGHT^S DREAM. 73 

All school-days' friendship, childhood innocence ? 

We, Hermia, like two artificial gods, 

Have with our needles created both one flower, 

Both on one sampler, sitting on one cushion, 205 

Both warbling of one song, both in one key. 

As if our hands, our sides, voices, and minds, 

Had been incorporate. So we grew together, 

Like to a double cherry, seeming parted. 

But yet an union in partition, 210 

Two lovely berries molded on one stem ; 

So, with two seeming bodies, but one heart ; 

Two of the first, like coats in heraldry. 

Due but to one and crowned with one crest. 

And will you rent our ancient love asunder, 215 

To join with men in scorning your poor friend ? 

It is not friendly, 'tis not maidenly : 



friendship between the great Cappadocian saints, Basil and Gregory Nazi- 
anzen, Decline and Fall, chap, xxvii, note 29, refers to this passage, and 
quotes a parallel passage from Gregory's poem on his own life." Gibbon 
adds, " Shakespeare liad never read the poems of Gregory Nazianzen, he 
was ignorant of the Greek language; but his mother tongue, the language 
of Nature, is the same in Cappadocia and in Britain." This is prettily 
said ; but what evidence have we that Shakespeare was ignorant of 
Greek? — 203. artificial =artificiug [White] ? exercising creative skill in 
art [Wright]? produced by art? — artificial gods = creative goddesses, 
Minerva and Arachne, perhaps [Moberly] ? Lat. ai's, artis, nxX,; fac-ej^e, 
to make ; artifex, artijicls, artist ; maker. — 204. needles. Steevens and 
many after him have substituted neelds for this, in order to reduce it to a 
monosyllable. — 205. sampler. Lat. ex, out; emere, to take, to buy; 
eximh^e, to take out [a specimen] ; exemplum, a specimen; Fr. exemplaire, 
a model, pattern. — 208. incorporate = made one body [Schmidt] ? Lat. 
in: corpus, corporis, body. Jul. Csss., I, iii, 134. — For the omission of 
final d or ed, see Abbott, 3i2. — 211. lovely. Collier says, " It is unlikely 
that Helen would call herself a lovely berry." His MS. has loving, which 
Furness pronounces ' an unusually happy emendation.' We may answer 
that the prominent idea with Helena is inseparable companionship rather 
than mutual love : furthermore, Helena is speaking of her childhood, line 
202; and if, as a child, she was ' lovely,' why might she not as a woman 
say she was like a lovely berry ? — 213, 214. like was printed ' life ' in the 
early editions. Theobald (1733) made the change. These two lines bor- 
row the language of heraldry. Says Douce (1807), "Helen exemplifies 
her position by a simile, — *we had tioo of the first, i.e. bodies, like the 
double coats in heraldry that belong to man and wife as one person, but 
which, like our single heart, have but one crest.' " Staunton inclines to 
think that ' first ' applies to heraldical ' partitions.' " They were like the 
two sides of an escutcheon, on one of which the arms of the husband, and 
on the other the arms of the wife's family w^ere emblazoned . . . ' two 
... of the first ' meaning that the shield is divided by a vertical line 
from top to bottom." Moberly. — Sqq Furness. — 215. rent. Old form 
of rend. Jeremiah, iv, 30. A. S. hrandan, rendan, to cut or tear down, 



74 A MIDSUMMER NIGHT^S DREAM. [act III. 

Our sex, as well as I, may chide you for it, 
Though I alone do feel the injury. 

Hermia. I am amazed at your passionate words. 220 

I scorn you not : it seems that you scorn me. 

Helena. Have you not set Lysander, as in scorn, 
To follow me and praise my eyes and face ? 
And made your other love, Demetrius, 

Who even but now did spurn me with his foot, 225 

To call me goddess, nymph, divine and rare, 
Precious, celestial ? Wherefore speaks he this 
To her he hates ? and wherefore doth Lysander 
Deny your love, so rich within his soul. 
And tender me, forsooth, affection, 230 

But by your setting on, by your consent ? 
What though I be not so in grace as you, 
So hung upon with love, so fortunate. 
But miserable most, to love unlov'd ? 
This you should pity rather than despise. 235 

Hermia. I understand not what you mean by this. 

Helena. Ay, do, persever, counterfeit sad looks. 
Make mouths upon me when I turn my back ; 
Wink each at other; hold the sweet jest up: 
This sport, well carried, shall be chronicled. 240 

If you have any pity, grace, or manners. 
You would not make me such an argument. 
But fare ye well : 'tis partly my own fault ; 
Which death or absence soon shall remedy. 

Lysander. Stay, gentle Helena ; hear my excuse : 245 
My love, my life, my soul, fair Helena ! 

Helena. excellent ! 

Hermia. Sweet, do not scorn her so. 

Demetrms. If she cannot entreat, I can compel. 



Skeat. — 220. passionate. Quarto 2, from which it is supposed the 1st 
folio (1623) was printed, omits this word ; " another cumulative proof that 
this quarto was a playhouse copy, and had in its omissions supplied and 
corrections made before it came to be used as the original from which 
the folio was set up." Furness. — 22o. even but now. Abbott, 38.— 
232. grace = good fortune [Schmidt]? favor? — 237. persever. Accent? 
Hamlet, I, ii, 92. Abbott, ^92.— ay is always printed I in the old edi- 
tions. — 239. each at other. In Macbeth, I, iii, 155, ' each to other.' — 
240. carried = managed, performed, kept up? — 242. argument = sub- 
ject of light merriment [Johnson]? object of merriment [Moberly] ? — 
248. she = Hermia [Rolf e] ? — compel [you to leave off such insults] 



SCENE II.] A MIDSUMMER NIGHT^S DREAM. 76 

Lysander. Thou canst compel no more than she entreat : 
Thy threats have no more strength than her weak 
X-rays. — 250 

Helen, I love thee ; by my life, I do : 
I swear by that which I will lose for thee, 
To prove him false that says I love thee not. 

Demetrius. I say I love thee more than he can do. 

Lysander. If thou say so, withdraw, and prove it too. 255 

Demetrius. Quick, come ! 

Hermia. Lysander, whereto tends all this ? 

Lysander. Away, you Ethiope ! 

Demetrius. No, no, sir; 

Seem to break loose ; take on as you would follow, 
But yet come not : you are a tame man, go ! 

Lysander. Hang off, thou cat, thou burr ! vile thing, let 
loose, 260 

Or I will shake thee from me like a serpent ! 

Hermia. Why are you grown so rude ? what change is 
this? 
Sweet love, — 

Lysander. Thy love ! out, tawny Tartar, out ! 
Out, loathed medicine ! hated potion, hence ! 

Hermia. Do you not jest ? 

Helena. Yes, sooth ; and so do you. 265 

Lysander. Demetrius, I will keep my word with thee 

Demetrius. I would I had your bond, for I perceive 
A weak bond holds you : I'll not trust your word. 

Lysander. What, should I hurt her, strike her, kill her 
dead ? 
Although I hate her, I'll not harm her so. 270 

Hermia. What, can you do me greater harm than hate ? 

[Moberly] ? — 250. prays. All the early editors have praise, which makes 
no good sense. Theobald suggested 'prays,' me^nmg prayers. Furness 
approves it. Capell and Malone adopted it. However, Theobald, Moberly, 
Wright, Rolfe, Hudson, etc., read ' prayers.' — 252. by that = by my life 
[Wright]? — 257. Ethiope. So Hermia w^as dark, a brunette ? — No, 
no, sir = [in modern street language] " No you don't, You can't come that 
game over me." Furness. Many readings and interpretations have been 
proposed of lines 257-259.-258. Seem to break loose, etc = make 
believe you are breaking loose from Hermia ; act as if you wished to fol- 
low me and fight, but yet don't come? — 259. tame = cowardly ? Gr. 
haixaeiv, damsein, Lat. domare, to tame, subdue. — 260. burr. Still Hermia 
sticks to him? — 263. tawny. Her complexion? See note on I, ii, 82. 
264. potion. So quarto 1. The other early editions have ' poison.' Your 
preference? — 268. weak bond = Hermia's arms, which were clinging 



76 A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM. [act III. 

Hate me ! wherefore ? me ! what news, my love ! 

Am not I Hermia ? are not you Lysander ? 

I am as fair now as I was erewhile. 

Since night you lov'd me ; yet since night you left me : 275 

Why, then you left me — 0, the gods forbid ! — 

In earnest, shall I say ? 

Lysander. Ay, by my life ; 

And never did desire to see thee more. 
Therefore be out of hope, of question, of doubt ; 
Be certain, nothing truer ; 'tis no jest 280 

That I do hate thee and love Helena. 

Hermia. me ! you juggler ! you canker blossom ! 
You thief of love ! what, have you come by night 
And stolen my love's heart from him ? 

Helena. Fine, i' faith ! 

Have you no modesty, no maiden shame, 285 

No touch of bashfulness ? What, will you tear 
Impatient answers from my gentle tongue ? 
Fie, fie ! you counterfeit, you puppet, you ! 

Hermia. Puppet ! why so ? ay, that way goes the game. 
Now I perceive that she hath made compare 290 

Between our statures ; she hath urg'd her height ; 
And with her personage, her tall personage, 
Her height, forsooth, she hath prevail'd with him. 
And are you grown so high in his esteem, 
Because I am so dwarfish and so low ? 295 

How low am I, thou painted maypole ? speak ; 

around Lysander? — 272. wherefore. Accent? Abbott, 490. — news. 
Many would substitute means for 'news.' "We must doggedly shut our 
eyes to the substitution of any phrase which is merely an alleged im- 
provement, when the sense of the original texts is clear." Furness. — 
275. since = in the course of [this night] ? since the end of ? Abbott, 132, 
347 ; II, i, 146. —279. Therefore, etc. " Better to accept it as an incorrigi- 
ble Alexandrine." i^wr«ess. — 282. juggler. Malone, Walker, Wright, 
Hudson, Kolfe, Moberly, and Abbott, 477, all make juggler a trisyl. But 
Furness remarks that an exclamation-mark can take the place of a sylla- 
ble. — canker-blossom = not, 'blossom eaten by a canker,' but 'who 
cankers blossoms [Capell] ? blossom-cankerer [Wright] ? — 286. touch 
= delicate feeling [Wright]? sense, feeling [Rolfe]? tender feeling? — 
290. compare = comparison? See our ed. of 1st 2 books Par. Lost, 
i, 588. Abbott, 451.-292. Read the line so as to bring out the sense, 
even if the metre troubles prosodists. Abbott, 476. The two strongly 
emphasized words are, the first 'personage' and 'tall.' Furness. — 
296. "Twentie or fortie yoke of Oxen . . . draws home this May-pole 
(this stinking Ydol, rather) which is covered all over with flowers . . . 
and sometime painted with variable colours." Stubbes's Anatomie of 



SCENE II.] A MIDSUMMER NIGHT ^S DREAM. 77 

How low am I ? I am not yet so low 

But that my nails can reach unto thine eyes. 

Helena. I pray you, though you mock me, gentlemen, 
Let her not hurt me : I was never curst ; 300 

I have no gift at all in shrewishness ; 
I am a right maid for my cowardice : 
Let her not strike me. You perhaps may think, 
Because she is something lower than myself, 
That I can match her. 

Hermia. Lower ! hark, again. 305 

Helena. Good Hermia, do not be so bitter with me. 
I evermore did love you, Hermia, 
Did ever keep your counsels, never wrong'd you ; 
Save that, in love unto Demetrius, 

I told him of your stealth unto this wood. 310 

He followed you ; for love I f ollow'd him ; 
But he hath chid me hence and threaten'd me 
To strike me, spurn me, nay, to kill me too : 
And now, so you will let me quiet go, 

To Athens will I bear my folly back 315 

And follow you no further. Let me go : 
You see how simple and how fond I am. 

Hermia. Why, get you gone : who is't that hinders you ? 

Helena. A foolish heart, that I leave here behind. 

Hermia. What, with Lysander ? 

Helena. With Demetrius. 320 

Lysander. Be not afraid ; she shall not harm thee, Helena. 

Demetrius. No, sir, she shall not, though you take her 
part. 

Helena. 0, when she's angry, she is keen and slirewd ! 
She Avas a vixen when she went to school ; 
And though she be but little, she is fierce. 325 

Abuses, 1583. — 300. curst = forward, malignant, mischievous, spiteful, 
snarling? A. S. ciirskm, to curse; perhaps allied to Swed. ko7'sa, Dan. 
korse, to make the sign of the cross ; W. c7^og, a cross ; hanging. The 
sign of the cross was once used in cursing as well as in blessing. Lat. 
crux, cruc-is, cross, akin to a^ook. Thus the cross was a gibbet made 
with a crook or cross piece. Wore, Skeat. The Bible reader will recall, 
" cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree." — 304. something = some- 
what ? Often so in Shakes. — 310. stealth = stealing away ? — 312. chid. 
Line 200. — 314. so. I, i, 39. Abbott, 133. — 317. fond. Line 114.— 
321. Helena. " Polysyllabic names often receive but one accent at the 
end of the line." Abbott, 469.-323. shrewd. II, i, 33.-324. vixen. 
A. S. fox ; Ger. fuchs, fox; A. S. fern, fyzen ; Ger. fern, fuchsin, she-fox, 



78 A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM. [ACT III. 

Hermia. Little again ! nothing but low and little ! 
Why will you suffer her to flout me thus ? 
Let me- come to her. 

Lysander. Get you gone, you dwarf ; 

You minimus, of hindering knot-grass made ; 
You bead, you acorn. 

Demetrius. You are too officious 330 

In her behalf that scorns your services. 
Let her alone : speak not of Helena ; 
Take not her part ; for if thou dost intend 
Never so little show of love to her. 
Thou shalt abide it. 

Lysander. Now she holds me not ; 335 

Now follow, if thou dar'st, to try whose right. 
Of thine or mine, is most in Helena. 

Demetrius. Follow ! nay, I'll go with thee, cheek by jowl. 
\_Exeunt Lysander and Demetriys. 

Hermia. You, mistress, all this coil is long of you. 
Nay, go not back. 

Helena. I will not trust you, I, 340 

Nor longer stay in your curst company. 
Your hands than mine are quicker for a fray. 
My legs are longer, though, to run away. [Exit. 

cub of a fox. — 329. minimus = smallest. Lysander's Latin might be 
improved by changing minimus (masc.) to minima (fern.) ; but perhaps 
the 'humor of it' is in making her a male for the nonce! — knot-grass 

= the Polygonum aviculare, a British weed, low, straggling, and many- 
jointed [Eliacombe]? " It was anciently supposed to prevent the growth 
of any animal or child." Steevens. Another explanation of 'hinder- 
ing ' is that of Johnstone : ' difficult to cut in the harvest time, or to pull 
in the process of weeding.' — 331. her . . . that. Abbott, 218.-333. 
intend = pretend [Steevens, Wright]? — Lat. in, towards; tendere, to 
stretch. — 334. never. Ill, i, 124. .166oi^ 52. — 335. abide. Line 175.— 
337. of thine or mine == I mean, 'of thy right or my right'? See 
our ed. of The Tempest, II, i, 28, or Farness. Of course the 'of 
would now be omitted. — 338. cheek by jowl = side by side [Wright] ? 
— "A. S. ceafl, fr. Teutonic kaf, signifying 'jaw.' . . . Commencing 
with a Teut. dimin. kaf-la, we deduce A. S. ceafl, whence chafle (weak- 
ened to c'lsefle in Lay anion), chavel, chaivl, chaul, chol, jol, jole, joiol. 
. . . Jowl is" used rather vaguely, meaning (1) jaw, (2) flesh on the chin, 
(3) cheek, (4) head." Skeat. — 'Not elsewhere in Shakes, as a noun ; but 
see our Hamlet, V, i, 75.-339. coil = confusion, turmoil [Furness]? 
Gaelic and Irish .goi^, to boil, rage, war, battle. Skeat. — ^eQ our ed. of 
Hamlet, III, i, 67. — long of = in connection with? in company with? on 
account of? owing to? So in Love's Labor's Lost, II, i, 118. —This old 
Eng. idiom is still heard among uneducated people in New England. 
Abbott, 168. Web. Int. Diet, makes this ' long ' a contraction of ' along ' ; 
Kolfe saya it is not. —May not ' long of ' be a vulgarism for ' along with,' 



SCEXE II.] A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM. 79 

Hermia. I am amaz'd, and know not what to say. [^Exit. 

Oberon. This is thy negligence : still thou mistak'st, 345 
Or else commit'st thy knaveries wilfully. 

PiocJc. Believe me, king of shadows, I mistook. 
Did not you tell me I should know the man 
By the Athenian garments he had on ? 

And so far blameless proves my enterprise, 350 

That I have 'nointed an Athenian's eyes ; 
And so far am I glad it so did sort. 
As this their jangling I esteem a sport. 

Oberon. Thou seest these lovers seek a place to fight : 
Hie therefore, Eobin, overcast the night ; 355 

The starry welkin cover thou anon 
With drooping fog as black as Acheron, 
And lead these testy rivals so astray 
As one come not within another's way. 

Like to Lysander sometime frame thy tongue, 360 

Then stir Demetrius up with bitter wrong ; 
And sometime rail thou like Demetrius ; 
And from each other look thou lead them thus, 
Till o'er their brows death-counterfeiting sleep 
With leaden legs and batty wings doth creep : 365 

Then crush this herb into Lysander's eye ; 
Whose liquor hath this virtuous property, 
To take from thence all error with his might, 
And make his eyeballs roll with wonted sight. 
When they next wake, all this derision 370 

Shall seem a dream and fruitless vision ; 
And back to Athens shall the lovers wend. 



and may not the meaning, ' because of,' originate as an inference from the 
idea of companionship, as " Evil communications corrupt good manners " ? 
— 344. This line is in the quartos, not the folios.— 351. 'nointed. Abbott, 
460, gives a list of about fifty words of which the prefixes are dropped in 
Shakes. — 352. sort = happen? Lat. sors (probably allied to serere, to 
connect, and series, order), sortem, lot, destiny, chance, condition, state. 
Skeat. Hamlet, I, i, 109. — 353. jangling. A word of imitative origin. 
Skeat.—356. welkin. See our 1st 2 books. Far. Lost, II, 538; The 
Tempest, 1, ii, 4.-357. Acheron = hell ? a river in hell? So Milton, 
Comus, 604. See our ed. of Macbeth, III, v, 15. — 359. as =:= that ? A bbott, 
275. — 365. leaden legs. Shakes, and Spenser have ' leaden mace.' The 
poets naturally associate lead and sleep? See our Jul. Cses, IV, iii, 266. — 
batty = bat-like? Abbott, 450. —367. liquor. Lat. liquere, to be liquid ; 
liquor, liquid. — virtuous = powerful [Rolfe] ? salutiferous [Johnson] ? 
of corrective or healing power [White]? Milton's Comws, 621. — 368. his 
= its? See our ed. of Hamlet, I, ii, 216.-370. derision. Syllables? 



80 A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM. [ACT III. 

With league whose date till death shall never end. 

Whiles I in this affair do thee employ, 

I'll to my queen and beg her Indian boy ; 375 

And then I will her charmed eye release 

From monster's view, and all things shall be peace. 

Puck. My fairy lord, this must be done with haste, 
For night's swift dragons cut the clouds full fast. 
And yonder shines Aurora's harbinger, 380 

At whose approach, ghosts, wandering here and there. 
Troop home to churchyards : damned spirits all. 
That in crossways and floods have burial. 
Already to their wormy beds are gone ; 
For fear lest day should look their shames upon, 385 

They wilfully themselves exile from light. 
And must for aye consort with black-brow'd night. 

Oheron. But we are spirits of another sort : 
I with the morning's love have oft made sport ; 
And, like a forester, the groves may tread, 390 

So vision? 311. — 373. date = duration? So in Sonnet, xviii, 4.-374. 
whiles. See our ed. of Macbeth, I, v, 5. — 379. dragons. Sansk. d7He, to 
see; Gr. Se>KO/u,ai, derkomai, see; Spa«wi', drakon, a dragon, lit. 'seeing one,' 
i.e. sharp-sighted one. The winged serpents are named from their bright 
eyes. Shakespeare makes dragons the steeds of night; Milton yokes 
them to Cynthia's car. — 380. Aurora's. As a goddess, Aurora, personi- 
fication of the dawn, is the herald of Helios, the sun-god. But the ' har- 
binger ' of Aurora is supposed to be Phosphorus or Lucifer (light-bringer) , 
the morning star. — harbinger. See our Macbeth, I, iii, 45.— Milton, 
Song on May Mornmg, makes ' the bright morning star day's harbinger? 

— 381. whose approach. Whose ? — Wandering. So. 

" I am thy father's spirit, 
Doom'd for a certain term to walk the night." 

Hamlet, I, v, 9, 10. — 382. churchyards. The 'yard' (A. S. geard,en- 
closure) in which the church stood, was almost always used as a burial 
place. See our Comus, 432 et seq. ; our Hymn on the Nativity, stanza 26. 

— 383. crossways. The old law, repealed in England in 1824, com- 
manded that the bodies of suicides be buried in cross-roads, with a stake 
thrust through them. — floods. The spirits of the unburied dead wan- 
dered, it was thought by the ancients, a hundred years ; but the souls of 
buried wicked persons tenanted their graves by day and roamed by night. 
Hence ' wormy beds ' in the next line, a phrase repeated by Milton in his 
poem on the Death of a Fair Infant, his sister's child. — 38B. exile. 
Accent? As You Like It, II, i, 1; Abbott, 490.-387. black-brow'd 
night. Repeated from Rom. and Jul, III, ii, 20.-389. morning's 
love = Tithonous, the aged husband of Aurora [Steevens] ? the star Phos- 
phorus ; possibly the sun; but more likely the morning . . . Aurora 
[Capell] ? Cephalus, the mighty hunter, paramour of Aurora [Holt White, 
Dyce, W. A.Wright, Moberly, Hudson] ? the morning's love, Aurora, the first 
blush of morning, with whom Oberon has sported, he not being compelled, 



SCENE II.] A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM. 81 

Even till the eastern gate, all fiery-red, 
Opening on Neptune, with fair blessed beams 
Turns into yellow gold his salt green streams. 
But, notwithstanding, haste ; make no delay : 
We may effect this business yet ere day. 395 

lExit. 
Puck. Up and down, up and down, 

I will lead them up and down : 

I am f ear'd in field and town : 

Goblin, lead them up and down. 
Here comes one. 400 

Enter Lysander. 

Lysander. Where art thou, proud Demetrius ? speak 

thou now. 
Puck. Here, villain ; drawn and ready. Where art thou ? 
Lysander. I will be with thee straight. 
Puck. Follow me, then, 

To plainer ground. {_Exit Lysander, as folloiving the voice. 

Enter Demetrius. 

Demetrius. Lysander ! speak again : 

Thou runaway, thou coward, art thou fled ? 405 

Speak ! In some bush ? Where dost thou hide thy head ? 

Puck. Thou coward, art thou bragging to the stars, 
Telling the bushes that thou look'st for wars, 
And wilt not come ? Come, recreant ; come, thou child ; 
I'll whip thee with a rod : he is defiPd 4io 

That draws a sword on thee. 

Demetrius. Yea, art thou there ? 

Puck. Follow my voice : we'll try no manhood here. 

lExetmt. 

like a ghost, to vanish at the dawn of day [Halliwell, Furness] ? — 391. east- 
ern gate. So Milton, U Allegro, 59.-392. Neptune=the god of the ocean ; 
the ocean itself ? — 393. turns, etc. See Sonnet, xxxiii, 4. — salt green = 
sea green [Tathwell, quoted and approved by Furness] ?— 402. drawn. 
Abbott, 374. — 409. recreant = apostate : cowardly; mean-spirited? — 
Lat. re, again, back; credere, to believe; hence reci^edere, to disavow 
one's opinion ; Low Lat. recredere, Fr. recroire, to alter one's faith ; se 
recredere, to own one's self beaten in a duel or judicial combat. The O.F. 
recreant, faint-hearted, is properly pres. participle of recroire, Skeatf 
Webster. — 412. try no manhood == have no fight? 



82 A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM. [ACT III. 



Enter Lysander. 

Ly Sander. He goes before me and still dares me Oii : 
When I come where he calls, then he is gone. 
The villain is much lighter-heel'd than 1 : 415 

I followed fast, but faster he did fly ; 
That fallen am I in dark uneven way, 
And here will rest me. \_Lies down.'] Come, thou gentle 

day! 
For if but once thou show me thy gray light, 
I'll find Demetrius and revenge this spite. \_Sleeps. 

Enter Puck and Demetrius. 

Pack. Ho, ho, ho ! Coward, why comest thou not ? 421 
Demetrius. Abide me, if thou dar'st ; for well I wot 

Thou runn'st before me, shifting every place. 

And dar'st not stand, nor look me in the face. 

Where art thou now ? 

Puck. Come hither : I am here. 425 

Demetrius. Nay, then, thou mock'st me. Thou shalt 
buy this dear, 

If ever I thy face by daylight see : 

Now, go thy way. Faintness constraineth me 

To measure out my length on this cold bed. 

By day's approach look to be visited. 

\_Lies down and sleeps. 

Enter Helena. 

Helena. weary night, long and tedious night, 431 
Abate thy hours ! Shine comforts from the east, 



417. that. ^&&o«, 283.— 421. Ho, ho, ho! " There was an old local prov- 
erb, ' To laugh like Robin Goodfellows ' ; which probably meant, to laugh 
in mockery or scorn. In the old Moral-plays, as also in the older Miracle- 
plays, the Devil was generally one of the leading characters, and his laughter 
of fiendish mirth was always expressed as in the text." Hudson. See Fur- 
??ess. — 422. abide = await ? Line 335.— wot. Sansk. vid, to see; Gr. 
olfia, oida, I know; Lat. vid-ere, to see; A. S. iv it an, to know, to see; 
antiquated wot, present indicative. — 420. buy = pay for [Johnson]? — 
432. shine comforts = cause to shine, or let comforts shine [Wright] ? 
shine [ye] comforts [Theobald]? send shining comforts? comforts do 



SCENE II.] A MIDSUMMER NIGHT \S DREAM. 83 

That I may back to Athens by daylight, 

From these that my poor company detest : 
And sleep, that sometimes shuts up sorrow's eye, 435 

Steal me awhile from mine own company. 

\^Lies doivn and sleeps. 
Puck. Yet but three ? 
Come one more : 

Two of both kinds makes up four 
Here she comes, 
Curst and sad : 
Cupid is a knavish lad. 
Thus to make poor females mad. 

Enter Hermia. 

Hermia. Never so weary, never so in woe. 
Bedabbled With the dew and torn with briers, 445 

I can no further crawl, no further go ; 

My legs can keep no pace with my desires. 
Here will I rest me till the break of day. 
Heavens shield Lysander, if they mean a fray ! 

\_Lies down and sleeps. 
Puck. On the ground 450 

Sleep sound : 
I'll apply 
To your eye, 
Gentle lover, remedy. 

[^Sqxieezing the juice in Lysandei^s eyes. 
When thou wak'st 465 

Thou tak'st 
True delight 
In the sight 



shine? — 434. detest = cry out against [Walker, Furness] ? abhor, loathe 
[Schmidt, Rolfe] ? — Lat. de, down, fully; testari, to testify, from testis, 
a witness; detestari, to imprecate evil by calling the gods to witness, 
to execrate. Skeat. — 437. tliree. By what Furness calls 'a barbar- 
ous prolongation of sound ' [thre-ee, or ther-ee], Verity, Rolfe, Abbott, 
484, etc., give this the force of a dissyl. So comes, three lines later. 
In the arrangement of the lines of the stanza, we adopt Furness's 
suggestion. —439. makes. J.&6o«, 443. — 441. curst. Line 300. — 443. 
females. Hardly used in Shakes, for women, except in the speech of 
such as Touchstone or Puck. As You Like It, V, i, 48. — 444. never. 
Ill, i, 124. — 446. go = walk [Schmidt] ? Often so in Shakes . — '153. to. 
This to was supplied by Rowe. All but Halliwell concur. ' Apply ' re- 



84 A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM. [ACT III. SCENE II. \ 

Of thy former lady's eye : 1 

And the country proverb known, 460 j 

That every man should take his own, I 

In your waking shall be shown : i 
Jack shall have Jill ; 

Naught shall go ill ; \ 

The man shall have his mare again, and all shall be well. ; 

\_Exit \ 

quires to. Does the metre also? — 463. Jack shall have Jill. So in ; 
IleYwood's Epigrammes upon Proverbs, 1567. — Jill seems to be a nick- 
name for Julia or Julianna. L. Grey, 1754. Julia is fem. of Julius, soft- j 
haired ? — Jack is from John, ' the gracious gift of Jehovah.' See note on l 
' Yaughan ' in our Hamlet, V, i, 58. " The nicknames of Jack and Jill as ] 
generic names . . . are of great antiquity." — 465. The man shall 1 
have, etc. Proverbial. j 



ACT IV. SCENE I.] A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM. 85 



ACT IV. 

Scene I. The Same. Lysander, Demetrius, Helena, and 
Hermia, lying asleep. 

Enter Titania and Bottom; Peas-blossom, Cobweb, 
Moth, Mustard-seed, and other Fairies attending; 
Oberon behind, unseen. 

Titania. Come, sit thee down upon this flowery bed, 

While I thy amiable cheeks do coy, 
And stick musk-roses in thy sleek smooth head, 

And kiss thy fair large ears, my gentle joy. 

Bottom. Where's Peas-blossom? 

Peas-blossom. Ready. 

Bottom. Scratch my head. Peas-blossom. Where's Moun- 
sieur Cobweb ? 

Cobweb. Eeady. 6 

Bottom. Mounsieur Cobweb, good mounsieur, get you 
your weapons in your hand, and kill me a red-hipped bum- 
blebee on the top of a thistle ; and, good mounsieur, bring 
me the honey-bag. Do not fret yourself too much in the 
action, mounsieur; and, good mounsieur, have a care the 
honey-bag break not ; I would be loath to have you over- 
flown with a honey-bag, signior. Where's Mounsieur 
Mustard-seed ? 16 



ACT IV. Scene I. "At the close of the last scene the stage is pitch 
dark, doubly black through Puck's charms, aud a change to daylight 
is rendered less violent by a new Act." Furness. — 2. amiable. Lat. 
amare, to love ; amiabilis, Fr. cuniable, lovable. Is the word now con- 
fined to persons? Psalms, Ixxxiv, 1; Par. Lost, iv, 250. — coy = soothe, 
caress [Steevens] ? stroke [Hudson, Rolf e] ? stroke gently [Moberly] ? 
coax [Wright]? — Root ki, to lie; qui-es, rest; quietus, still, quiet; Old 
Fr. coi, earlier coit, still, quiet. Skeat. See quietus in our Hamlet, III, 
i, 75. — 7. Mounsieur. See, on monsieur, our As You Like It, I, ii, 88. 
** Any indication whatever that tends to differentiate Bottom's pronuncia- 
tion from Theseus's should be by all means retained." Furness. — 15. 
overflown = overflowed ? — Flown now limited to flying? 



86 A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM. [ACT IV. 

Mustard-seed. Eeady. 

Bottom. Give nie your neaf, Moiinsieur Mustard-seed. 
Pray you, leave your courtesy, good mounsieur. 

Mustard-seed. What's your will ? 20 

Bottom. Nothing, good monsieur, but to help Cavalery 
Cobweb to scratch. I must to the barber's, mounsieur ; for 
methinks I am marvellous hairy about the face ; and I am 
such a tender ass, if my hair do but tickle me, I must scratch. 

Titania. What, wilt thou hear some music, my sweet 
love ? 25 

Bottom. I have a reasonable good ear in music. Let's 
have the tongs and the bones. 

Titania. Or say, sweet love, what thou desirest to eat. 

Bottom. Truly, a peck of provender : I could munch 
your good dry oats. Methinks I have a great desire to a 
bottle of hay : good hay, sweet hay, hath no fellow. 31 

Titania. I have a venturous fairy that shall seek 
The squirrel's hoard, and fetch thee [thence] new nuts. 

18. neaf. Icel. hneji, fist; akin to Dan. nseve ; Swed. ndfve, fist. In 
2 Henry IV, II, iv, 150, " I kiss thy neaf." — 19. leave your courtesy = 
put on your hat [W. A. Wright, Schmidt] ? leave off bowing [Moberly] ? — 
Love's Lab. Lost, V, i, 87, 88. — 21. Cavalery ==: knight? chevalier? cava- 
lier ? Sir ? — Lat. caballus, a nag ; Fr. cheval, a horse ; Span, cahallero, cava- 
lier, horseman. — 22. Cobweb. But he had just been ordered to go for 
honey : accordingly some editors think the name here should be Peas-blos- 
som. But may not Cobweb have disobeyed the human ass ? — 26. music. 
Bottom is a weaver, and weavers, says Schmidt, had the reputation of 
being good psalm-singers, a fact alluded to in Tioelfth N., II, iii, 57; 
1 Henry IV, II, iv, 122. —27. tongs and the bones. " ' Sometimes used, 
even in our own time, as an ironical welcome to a widower who has mar- 
ried again within the year.' Moberly. — 29. provender = food for beasts, 
as hay, oats, etc.? See our Jul. Cses., IV, i, 30. — 30. bottle. Not a mere 
bundle, but some measure of that provender. Halliwell. — Old H. Ger. 
p6zo, bdzo, a bundle of flax ; Fr. botte, a truss, a bundle of hay; Eng. 
bottle (dimin.), a bundle (of hay). Bracket, Skeat. — 31. fellow = mate, 
equal. — Icel. felagi, a partner, fr. felag, a partnership; fe, property, lag, 
a laying together. SJceat. — 33. The squirrel's, etc. — Gr. o-Kta, skia, 
shadow; ovpd, oura, tail; o-Kiovpos, shadow-tail; Late Lat. scurellus, 
squirrel. The line seems to lack a syllable. Hanmer (1744) and many 
since have supplied thence as the missing word, the similarity between 
thee and thence having perhaps given rise to the omission. Abbott, how- 
ever (484), asserts that " either ' and ' must be accented and ' hoard ' pro- 
longed [try it!], or we must scan as follows: 

' The squir | rel's hoard, | and fetch | thee new \ " nuts.' " 

As to this, Furness says, " I doubt if Titania's meaning demands such an 
emphasis on new ; and the prolongation of the word so as to supply the 
missing rhythm, which is what Abbott intends, gives a sound perilously 
near the characteristic cry of a cat." " In the distinct enunciation of 



SCENE I.] A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM. 87 

Bottom. I had rather have a handful or two of dried peas. 
But, I pray you, let none of your people stir me : I have an 
exposition of sleep come upon me. 36 

Titania. Sleep thou, and I will wind thee in my arms. — 
Fairies, begone, and be all ways away. {^Exeunt Fairies. 

So doth the woodbine the sweet honeysuckle 
Gently entwist ; the female ivy so 40 

Enrings the barky fingers of the elm. 
0, how I love thee ! how I dote on thee ! [They sleep. 

Enter Puck. 

Ohei'on. \_AdvanGing'] Welcome, good Eobin. Seest thou 
this sweet sight ? 
Her dotage now I do begin to pity ; 

For, meeting her of late behind the wood, 45 

Seeking sweet favors for this hateful fool, 
I did upbraid her and fall out with her ; 
For she his hairy temples then had rounded 
With coronet of fresh and fragrant flowers ; 
And that same dew, which sometime on the buds 50 

Was wont to swell like round and orient pearls. 
Stood now within the pretty flowerets' eyes 
Like tears that did their own disgrace bewail. 
When I had at my pleasure taunted her, 
And she in mild terms begg'd my patience, 55 



'fetch thee,' the time of a syllable is gained." Wright. From all such 
scansion — " deliver us." — 3H. exposition = disposition [Wright] ? — 38. 
all ways = in all directions ? — The folio has ' alwaies.' — 39. woodbine 
. . . honeysuckle. There has been long and laborious discussion of 
this ; for the two plants have commonly been regarded as one. " The con- 
sensus of opinion inclines to Gilford's interpretation of woodbine " {i.e. as 
the 'blue bindweed,' the 'great convolvulus']. Furness. In Ben Jon- 
son's Vision of Delight, quoted by Furness from Gilford, we read, " How 
the blue bindweed doth itself infold with honeysuckle," etc. Gifford 
adds, "In many of our counties the woodbine is still the name for the 
'great convolvulus.'" — 'Woodbine' sounds better than 'bindweed'? 
The names are different in the United States ? — A. S. loudehinde ; wuchi, 
wood; fetncZcm, to bind.— 40-41. female ivy . . . elm. Why 'female'? 
" They led the vine to wed her elm; she, spoused, about him twines Her 
marriageable arms." Pa7\ Lost, v, 215-217.— 44. dotage = senility ? 
imbecility ? silly affection ? over-fondness ? — Old Du. doten, to mope ; dut, 
anap, sleep; Icel.c?oi^a, to nod with sleep. Skeat. — 46. favors ^presents, 
love tokens [Schmidt]? II, i, 12. — 51. orient. See our ed. 1st 2 books 
Pa7\ Lost, i, 546; also Par. Lost, v, 2.— pearls. II, i, 15; our ed. of 
Tempest, I, ii, 155.— 55. patience. Syl.? I, 1, 152; Abbott, 479.-63. 



88 A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM. [ACT IV. 

I then did ask of her her changeling child ; 
Which straight she gave me, and her fairy sent 
To bear him to my bower in fairy-land. 
And now I have the boy, I will undo 

This hateful imperfection of her eyes : 60 

And, gentle Puck, take this transformed scalp 
From off the head of this Athenian swain ; 
That, he awaking when the other do, 
May all to Athens back again repair. 

And think no more of this night's accidents 65 

But as the fierce vexation of a dream. 
But first I will release the fairy queen. 
Be as thou wast wont to be-, 
See as thou wast wont to see : 
Dian's bud o'er Cupid's flower 70 

Hath such force and blessed power. 
]N"ow, my Titania ; wake you, my sweet queen. 

Titania. My Oberon ! what visions have I seen ! 
Methought I was enamour'd of an ass. 
Oberon. There lies your love. 

Titania. How came these things to 

pass ? 
0, how mine eyes do loathe his visage now ! 76 

Oberon. Silence awhile. — Eobin, take off this head. — 
Titania, music call ; and strike more dead 
Than common sleep of all these five the sense. 

Titania. Music, ho ! music, such as charmeth sleep ! 80 

\_Music, still. 
Puck. Now, when thou wak'st, with thine own fool's eyes 

peep. 
Oberon. Sound, music! Come, my queen, take hands 
with me, 

other. Plu.? Ahhott 12; Mer. of Ven., I, i, 54.-64. may all = all 
may, or they all may [Abbott, 399] ? — 66. fierce. Gr. 0ryp, tlier, a wild 
animal; Lat. ferus, O. F. Jiers, Fr. fier, wild.— 68. Be as. The folios 
insert ' thou' between be and as. — 70. Dian's bud = bud of the Agnus 
Castus or Chaste Tree [Steevens]? more probably a product of Shake- 
speare's imagination [Wright] ? See Chaucer's The Flower and the Leaf, 
472-475.— o'er. Thirlby suggested this for the or of the early editions. 
All concur. — Cupid's flower. II, i, 163.-76-77. his . . . this. In 
some of the early editions these words are interchanged. — 79. five. 
Thirlby suggested this for the fine of the quartos and first two folios. 
Most concur. The five are Demetrius, Lysander, etc. ? — Stage direction. 
Music still = soft music [Dyce, Staunton, Rolfe] ? music cease [Collier] ? 



SCENE I.] A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM, 89 

And rock the groiuid whereon these sleepers be. 

Now thou and I are new in amity, 

And will to-morrow midnight solemnly 85 

Dance in Duke Theseus' house triumphantly, 

And bless it to all fair posterity. 

There shall the pairs of faithful lovers be 

Wedded, with Theseus, all in jollity. 

Fuck Fairy king, attend, and mark : 90 

I do hear the morning lark. 

Oberon. Then, my queen, in silence sad. 
Trip we after the night's shade : 
We the globe can compass soon 
Swifter than the wand'ring moon. 95 

Titania. Come, my lord, and in our flight 
Tell me how it came this night 
That I sleeping here was found 
With these mortals on the ground. lExemit. 

\_Horns winded within. 

Enter Theseus, Hippolyta, Egeus, and train. 

Theseus. Go, one of you, find out the forester; 100 

For now our observation is perform'd ; 
And since we have the vaward of the day. 
My love shall hear the music of my hounds. — 
Uncouple in the western valley ; let them go ! — 
Dispatch, I say, and find the forester. — 105 

\_Exit an Attendant. 

— 84. rock the ground. Like a cradle? Wright. — M.o\iQx\Y quotes 

from Horace, GrafAse, . . . alterno terram, quatiunt pede, the Graces 
with alternate step shake the ground.— 85. solemnly = ceremoniously 
[Schmidt]? See on solemn in our ed. of Macbeth, III, i, 14.-87. pos- 
terity. So the folios. Preferred by White and others to the prosperity 
of quarto 1. "To Theseus's [Furness will so mark the possessive of 
' Theseus '] marriage, the fairies bring present triumph ; but on his house 
they confer the blessing of a fair posterity." Furness. — 92. sad = grave, 
serious [Wright]? melancholy ? — A. S. saed, sated; Ger. satt, satiated, 
weary; Lat. sat, satis, sufficient. — 95. wandering moon. Vergil's 
errantem lunam. Mneid, i, 742.-101. observation. I, i, 167.— 102. 
vaward = vanguard ? fore part? early morning? — Lat. ah, from, ante, 
before, in front; Low Lat, ahante, Fr. avant, in front, before; A. S. weard, 
Fr. garde, a guard ; Fr. avant garde, advanced guard of an army ; Eng. 
vanguard. — IQ^. Halliwell calls attention to Theseus' penchant for 
hunting as set forth in Chaucer's Knights Tale. — 10^. uncouple = loose 



90 A MIDSUMMER NIGHT^S DREAM. [ACT IV. 

We will, fair queen, up to the mountain's top, 
And mark tlie musical confusion 
Gf hounds and echo in conjunction. 

Hippolyta. I was with Hercules and Cadmus once, 
When in a wood of Crete they bay'd the bear iio 

With hounds of Sparta : never did I hear 
Such gallant chiding ; for, besides the groves, 
The skies, the fountains, every region near 
Seem all one mutual cry. I never heard 
So musical a discord, such sweet thunder. 115 

Theseus. My hounds are bred out of the Spartan kind, 
So flew'd, so sanded, and their heads are hung 
With ears that sweep away the morning dew ; 
Crook-kneed, and dew-lapp'd like Thessalian bulls ; 
Slow in pursuit, but match'd in mouth like bells, 120 

Each under each. A cry more tunable 
Was never holla'd to, nor cheer'd with horn, 
In Crete, in Sparta, nor in Thessaly : 
Judge when you hear. — But, soft ! what nymphs are these ? 

Egeus. My lord, this is my daughter here asleep ; 125 

And this, Lysander ; this Demetrius is ; 



the hounds? Titus Anclr.,ll,\i,o. — 107-108. confusion . . . conjunc- 
tion. Syllables ? I, i, 149. — 109. Cadmus. Son of King Agenor of Phoe- 
nicia, and brother of Europa. Credited with having introduced letters 
into Greece. Shakes., like Milton, dares to originate myths? Pliny 
(viii. 83) says there were no bears nor boars in Crete. It was famous for 
hounds. So Sparta.— 112. chiding. II, i, 142; As You Like It, II, i, 7. 
Any sense of scolding here? — 114. seem. So the 1st folio. The editors 
generally change it to seem'd. Is the present more vivid, as if she were 
again beholding the scene? — 117. flew'd = having large hanging chaps 
[Schmidt] ? — Flews are the chaps of a deep-mouthed hound, which bag 
downwards, a 'flew' being origin, a drag-net." Moherly. — sanded = 
marked with small spots [Johnson] ? of a sandy color [Steevens, Schmidt, 
Dyce, etc.]? — 118. dew-lapped. II, i, 50.-119. Thessalian. Xeno- 
phon in his treatise on Hunting tells us that the gods taught the art to the 
Thessalian centaur Chiron, and he to Theseus. — Thessaly in the N.E. of 
Greece, S. of Macedonia, E. of Epirus, was noted for its pasturage, its 
horses and herds. — 120. slow. " Fast hounds would run down the chase 
too soon"? l/o6eW2/. — match'd in mouth like bells. "In Shake- 
speare's day the greatest attention was paid to the musical quality of the 
cry. It was a ruling consideration in the formation of a pack, that it 
should possess the musical fullness and strength of a perfect canine quire. 
And hounds of good voice were selected and arranged in the hunting 
chorus on the same general principles that govern the formation of any 
other more articulate choir." Baynes. Addison's Sir Roger de Coverley, 
it will be remembered, sent back a hound that a friend had presented 
him: "The dog he had sent was indeed a most excellent bass, but at 
present lie only wanted a counter-tenor." — 124. soft = hold? not so fast? 



SCENE I.] A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM. 91 

This Helena, old Nedar's Helena : 
I wonder of their being here together. 

Theseus. No doubt they rose up early to observe 
The rite of May, and, hearing our intent, 130 

Came here in grace of our solemnity. — 
But speak, Egeus ; is not this the day 
That Hermia should give answer of her choice ? 

Egeus. It is, my lord. 134 

Theseus. Go, bid the huntsmen wake them with their 
horns. 

\_Horns and shout ivithin. Lysander, Demetrius, 
Helena, and Hermia, tcake and start up. 
Good-morrow, friends. Saint Valentine is past : 
Begin these wood birds but to couple now ? 

Lysander. Pardon, my lord. 

Theseus. I pray you all, stand up. 

I know you two are rival enemies : 

How comes this gentle concord in the world, 140 

That hatred is so far from jealousy, 
To sleep by hate, and fear no enmity ? 

Lysander. My lord, I shall reply amazedly, 
Half sleep, half waking : but as yet, I swear, 
I cannot truly say how I came here ; 145 

But, as I think, — for truly would I speak. 
And now I do bethink me, so it is, — 
I came with Hermia hither : our intent 
Was to be gone from Athens, where we might be 
Without the peril of th' Athenian law — 150 



Often so in Shakes. Hamlet, I, v, 58. — 128. wonder of. Ill, i, 39; 
Abbott, 174. — 130. rite of May. I, i, 167. — 131. grace = honor ? So in 
Hamlet, 1, ii, 124. —132. Egeus (E-ge'us). — 134. that = in which? 
A. Y. L. I., Ill, ii, 166: Genesis, ii, 17; Abbott, 284.-136. St. Valentine. 
Supposed to have suffered martyrdom under the emperor Claudius (Marcus 
Aurelius) , 270 a.d. " Shakes, knew quite as well as we know that Theseus 
lived long before St. Valentine." Furness. " Most men are of the opinion 
that this day [Feb. 14] every bird doth chuse her mate for theyeare." Wither's 
Epithalamia, 1633. — 137. but . . . now = but now? Abbott, 129.— 
141, 142. so far ... to sleep = so far . . . as to sleep? Abbott, 281. — 
jealousy = being jealous [Moberly] ? — 144. half sleep = half sleeping 
[Schmidt, Rolf e] ? "I am inclined to think that 'sleep' and 'waking' 
are here substantives and are loosely connected with the next verb ' reply ' " 
[Wright, Furness]? — 149. w^here = wherever ? anywhere? to some 
place in which ? — might be. So all the early editions, except quarto 1, 
which omits *be.' "I prefer to retain the 'be' notwithstanding its 
rhythmical superfluity." Furness. — 150. without = beyond [Staun- 



92 A MIDSUMMER NIGHT^S DREAM. [ACT IV. 

Egeus. Enough, enough, my lord ; you have enough : 
I beg the law, the law, upon his head. 
They would have stolen away ; they would, Demetrius, 
Thereby to have defeated you and me, 

You of your wife and me of my consent, 155 

Of my consent that she should be your wife. 

Demetrius. My lord, fair Helen told me of their stealth, 
Of this their purpose hither to this wood 5 
And I in fury hither follow'd them. 

Fair Helena in fancy following me. 160 

But, my good lord, I wot not by what power, — 
But by some power it is, — my love to Hermia, 
Melted as [melts] the snow, seems to me now 
As the remembrance of an idle gaud 

Which in my childhood I did dote upon ; 165 

And all the faith, the virtue of my heart. 
The object and the pleasure of mine eye, 
Is only Helena. To her, my lord. 
Was I betroth'd ere I saw Hermia : 

But, like a sickness, did I loathe this food ; 170 

But, as in health, come to my natural taste, 
Now I do wish it, love it, long for it. 
And will for evermore be true to it. 

Theseus. Fair lovers, you are fortunately met : 
Of this discourse we shall hear more anon. 175 

Egeus, I will overbear your will ; 
For in the temple, by and by, with us, 



ton]? Abbott, 197. — 157. stealth. Ill, ii, 310. — 161. wot. See on 
III, ii, 422. Properly a preterite used as a present. Wright. — 163. 
melted, etc. Is a syllable needed to make the line rhythmical? Pope 
read "Is melted as," etc.; Capell, White and others, 'Melted as doth 
the snow'; Stevens, 'Melted as is,' etc.; Keightley, 'Melted e'en as'; 
Staunton, ' All melted as,' etc. ; Kinnear, ' Melted as thaws,' etc. ; 
Schmidt, ' So melted as,' or ' Being melted as,' etc.; Bulloch (quoted by 
Furness), 'Immaculate as,' etc. Furness says, " I prefer Dyce's 'Melted 
as melts ' .* it is smooth, and the iteration may possibly have led to the 
sophistication." Abbott, 486, suggests the prolongation of Melt ; but 
such drawling is intolerable to the average ear. — 164. gavid. See on 
I, i, 33. — 170. like a. Steevens, at Furness' suggestion, changed a to in. 
Staunton retains a. The rest, except Schmidt, who thinks ' sickness ' is 
for ' sick person,' use ^?^. To us the change seems unnecessary, and a step 
proseioard. Schmidt {Shakes. Lexicon, pp. 1421-1423) gives more than 
sixty illustrations of Shakespeare's use of the abstract for the concrete, 
and remarks that " no poet has been nearly so bold in this poetic license 
as Shakespeare." It shows the vividness of Shakespeare's imagination 



SCENE I.] A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM. 93 

These couples shall eternally be knit : 

And, for the morning now is something worn, 

Our purpos'cl hunting shall be set aside. 180 

Away with us to Athens'; three and three. 

We'll hold a feast in great solemnity. — 

Come, Hippolyta. 

[Exeunt Theseus, Hippolyta, Egeus, and train. 

Demetrius. These things seem small and undistinguishable. 
Like far-off mountains turned into clouds. 185 

Hermia. Methinks I see these things with parted eye. 
When everything seems double. 

Helena. So methinks : 

And I have found Demetrius, like a jewel. 
Mine own, and not mine own. 

[Are you sure 

Demetrius. That we are awake ?] It seems to me 190 
That yet we sleep, we dream. Do not you think 
The duke was here, and bid us follow him ? 

Hermia. Yes ; and my father. 

Helena. And Hippolyta. 

Ly Sander. And he did bid us follow to the temple. 

Demetrius. Why, then, we are awake : let's follow him ; 
And by the way let us recount our dreams. [^Exeunt. 

Bottom. [^Aiuaking'] When my cue comes, call me, and I 
will answer: my next is, ^ Most fair Pyramus.' — Heigh-ho! 
— Peter Quince! Flute, the bellows-mender! Snout, the 
tinker ! Starveling ! God's my life, stolen hence, and left 
me asleep ! I have had a most rare vision. I have had a 
dream, past the wit of man to say what dream it was : man 
is but an ass, if he go about to expound this dream. Me- 

vitalizing and personifying. — 178. knit. I, i, 172 ; II, ii, 47. — 179. for = 

because? on the ground that? — 181, 182. Halliwell quotes from Chau- 
cer's Knight's Tale (2702-2704) : 

" Duk Theseus, and al his companye, 
Is comen horn to Athenes his cite, 
With alle blys and gret solempnite." 

— 188. jevrel. Not that Demetrius was like a jewel; but found as one 
finds by accident a jewel, and knows not whether it can be retained. 
Malone. — 189. mine own, and not mine oion. Sense of insecurity? can 
hardly believe in her sudden good fortune? — are you sure, etc. The 
bracketed words are not in the folio. Are they needed? Effect on the 
metre? — 193. yea. Yea answers here a question framed in the negative. 
Sir Thomas More's rule would require it to be ' yes.' Wright. 

197. cue. See III, i, 67 ; our Hamlet, II, ii, 545. —200. God's my life. 
See our As You Like It, III, v, 43. — 203. go about. "Why do you 



94 A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM. [act IV, 

thought I was — there is no man can tell what. Methought 
I was, — and methought I had, — but man is but a patched 
fool, if he will offer to say what methought I had. The eye 
of man hath not heard, the ear of man hath not seen, man's 
hand is not able to taste, his tongue to conceive, nor his 
heart to report, what my dream was. I will get Peter 
Quince to write a ballad of this dream : it shall be called 
Bottom's Dream, because it hath no bottom ; and I will 
sing it in the latter end of a play, before the duke : perad- 
venture, to make it the more gracious, I shall sing it at her 
death. lExit. 

Scene II. Athens. Quince^s House. 

Enter Quince, Flute, Snout, and Starveling. 

Quince. Have you sent to Bottom's house ? is he come 
home yet ? 

Starveling. He cannot be heard of. Out of doubt he is 
transported. 

Flute. If he come not, then the play is marred : it goes 
not forward, doth it ? 

Quince. It is not possible : you have not a man in all 
Athens able to discharge Pyramus but he. 

Flute. No, he hath simply the best wit of any handi- 
craft man in Athens. lo 

Quince. Yea, and the best person too ; and he is a very 
paramour for a sweet voice. 

go about to recover the wind of me?" Our Hamlet, III, ii, 322. — 
205. patched = paltry [Schmidt]? motley? — "In a Flemish picture of 
the sixteenth century . . . tliere is a procession of masquers and mum- 
mers, led by a fool or jester, Avhose dress is covered with many-colored 
coarse patches." Staunton (describing a picture he had seen). — See note 
in our Mer.-of Ven., II, v, 45.— 206. eye . . . ear, etc. See 1 Corinth., 
ii, 9. "This kind of humor [mistaking words] was so very common, it 
is by no means necessary to consider (.sic) that Shakespeare intended to 
parody Scripture." Halliwell. — 210. ballad. Low Lat. ballare, to dance ; 
Ital. ballata, a dancing song. —212. a play. A was sometimes colloquial 
for our? — 213. lier = Thisbe's? — Theobald suggested that at her is a 
copyist's blunder for after. Staunton pronounces Theobald's conjecture 
extremoly plausible ; W. A. Wright says it is ingenious ; Furness declares 
it very surely right in his opinion ; Hudson adopts it in his text. After 
(very vulgar arter !) death would mean after his stage death in the play? 
Scene II. 4. transported = removed to the next world, killed 
[Schmidt] ? transformed or metamorphosed [Hudson, Wright, Furness] ? 
carried off [Rolfe] ? See Quince's 'translated,' III, i, 108. —8. dis- 
charge. I, li, 81.— 9. best wit of any. This 'confusion of construe- 



SCENE II.] A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM. 95 

Flute. You must say ' paragon : ' a paramour is, God 
bless us, a thing of naught. 

Enter Snug. 

Snug. Masters, the duke is coming from the temple, and 
there is two or three lords and ladies more married. If our 
sport had gone forward, we had all been made men. 17 

Flute. 0, sweet bully Bottom ! Thus hath he lost six- 
pence a day during his life ; he could not have scaped six- 
pence a day : an the duke had not given him sixpence a 
day for playing Pyramus, I'll be hanged ; he would have 
deserved it : sixpence a day in Pyramus, or nothing. 22 

Enter Bottom. 

Bottom. Where are these lads ? where are these hearts ? 

Quince. Bottom ! — most courageous day ! most 
happy hour ! 

Bottom. Masters, I am to discourse wonders : but ask me 
not what; for if I tell you, I am no true Athenian. I will 
tell you everything, right as it fell out. 

Quince. Let us hear, sweet Bottom. 29 

Bottom. Not a word of me. All that I will tell you is, 
that the duke hath dined. Get your apparel together, good 
strings to your beards, new ribbons to your pumps ; meet 
presently at the palace ; every man look o'er his part ; for 
the short and the long is, our play is preferred. In any case, 
let Thisby have clean linen ; and let not him that plays the 
lion pare his nails, for they shall hang out for the lion's 
claws. And, most dear actors, eat no onions nor garlic, for 
we are to utter sweet breath ; and I do not doubt but to hear 
them say, it is a sweet comedy. No more words : away ! go, 
away ! [Exeunt. 

tion ' is constantly heard. E.g. " The Eagle has the largest circulation of 
any evening paper." Abbott, 409. — 13. paragon. See our Hamlet, II, 
ii, 302.— is two. Abbott, 335. 14. naught. Hamlet, III, ii, 130.— 
17. made = greatly prospered? with fortunes made? See in Tempest, 
II, ii, 30, "Any strange beast there makes a man." Twelfth N., II, 
V, 142. — 19. scaped. See our Mer. of Yen., Ill, ii, 265. — 21. I'll be 
hanged. Many of our colloquialisms and slang terms can be traced to 
Shakespeare. — 23. hearts. Tempest, I, i, 5.-30. of me = about me? 
from me ? — Abbott, 165, 166. — 33. strings. For fastening ? — pumps = 
light shoes, often worn with ornamental ribbons in the shape of flowers 
[Schmidt]? From pomp in the sense of ornament. Skeat. — 34. pre- 
ferred = recommended [Hudson] ? offered for acceptance [Wright] ? 
Mer. of Yen,, II, ii, 131; our Jul Cses., Ill, i, 28. 



96 A MIDSUMMER I^IGHT^S DREAM. [ACT V. 



ACT V. 

Scene I. Athens. The Palace of Theseus. 

Enter Theseus, Hippolyta, Philostrate, Lords, and 
Attendants. 

Hippolyta. 'Tis strange, my Theseus, that these lovers 

speak of. 
Theseus. More strange than true : I never may believe 
These antique fables, nor these fairy toys. 
Lovers and madmen have such seething brains, 
Such shaping fantasies, that apprehend 6 

More than cool reason ever comprehends. 
The lunatic, the lover, and the poet 
Are of imagination all compact : 
One sees more devils than vast hell can hold ; 
That is the madman : the lover, all as frantic, 10 

Sees Helen's beauty in a brow of Egypt : 
The poet's eye, in a fine frenzy rolling. 
Doth glance from heaven to earth, from earth to heaven ; 
And as imagination bodies forth 

The forms of things unknown, the poet's pen 15 

Turns them to shapes, and gives to airy nothing 



ACT V, Scene I. 2. may = can? Ahhott, 307. "The conduct of the 
play falsifies the Duke's assertions. Hippolyta having observed to him, 
* 'Tis strange, my Theseus, that these lovers speak of,' he replies, paying 
no attentio7i, be it observed, to the fact that Hippolyta is speaking from 
the testimony of four persons ; a very artful stroke on the part of Shake- 
speare at the sceptics." i?q;fe, quoted by Furness. — 3. antique. See our 
Macbeth, IV, i, 130. — toys = trifles ? playthings. Aryan duk, as in Lat. 
duc-ere, to draw, used in the special sense of pulling off clothes. Akin 
to toio and tug. Du. tool, tuig ; Ger. zeug, stuff, trifles, trash. Skeat, 
Wore. — 4. seething. A. S. seodan, to hoil. Tempest, Y, i, 59, 60; Mac- 
beth, II, i, 39. " Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy (1621) echoes Shake- 
speare, alleging that drunkards 'seethe their brains in ale.' — 5. such . . . 
that. Abbott, 279. — 8. compact, com, for cwm, with, together. Root 
PAK, to seize, bind, grasp ; Lat, pajigere, pactum, to fasten, plant ; O. F. 
compacte, joined together. Skeat. — Accent? — 10. After 'is,' Wright, 
Rolfe, and Moberly insert a comma. Hudson wisely omits it? — 11. Hel- 
en's. See our As You Like It, III, ii, 135, — of Egypt = of a gypsy 



SCENE I.] A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM. 97 

A local habitation and a name. 

Such tricks hath strong imagination, 

That, if it would but apprehend some joy, 

It comprehends some bringer of that joy ; 20 

Or in the night, imagining some fear. 

How easy is a bush supposed a bear ! 

Hippolyta. But all the story of the night told over, 
And all their minds transfigur'd so together, 
More witnesseth than fancy's images, 25 

And grows to something of great constancy, 
But, howsoever, strange and admirable. 

Theseus. Here come the lovers, full of joy and mirth. 

Enter Lysander, Demetrius, Hermia, and Helexa. 

Joy, gentle friends ! joy and fresh days of love 
Accompany your hearts ! 

Lysander. More than to us 30 

Wait in your royal walks, your board, your bed ! 



[Steevens] ? — Egyptian? African? — 19. apprehend. Lat. ad, to; pre-, 
Lat. prae, before; Lat. root, hencl, for hed, cognate with get ;fr. root 
GHAD, to grasp, seize; Lat. apprehendere, to lay hold of. — 20. compre- 
hends,! etc. Apprehend denotes the laying hold of a thing mentally, so 
as to understand it clearly, at least in part. Comprehend denotes the 
embracing or understanding it in all its compass and extent." Int. Diet. 

— 21. imagining = in the case of one imagining ? Ahhott/dlS. fear — 
fearful thing ? — Abstract for concrete ? IV, i, 170.-25. more witness- 
eth = seems to show that there is more [Moberly] ? testifies that there is 
more ? — 26. constancy = consistency, stability, certainty [Johnson] ? 
reality [Wright]? congruity [Hudson]? — 27. howsoever, etc. = any- 
how, it is strange and wonderful [J. Hunter] ? howsoe'er it be, in any 
case [Abbott, 47] ? at all events [Hudson] ? — admirable = (in its proper 
Lat. sense) wonderful [Hudson] ? — strange = marvellous (used by 
Shakespeare with forcible and extensive meaning) [Cowdeu-Clarkes] ? 

— 30. more = may more joy, etc. ? 

1 Moberl3% quoting ' comprehends some bringer of that joy,' happily remarks, 
"This maybe said to be mythology in a nutshell," and quotes Wordsworth's Exctor- 
Sion, p. 146, as follows : 

" The traveller slaked 
His thirst from rill or gushing fount, and thanked 
The iSTaiad. Sunbeams upon distant hills, 
Ghding apace, with shadows in their train, 
Might with small help from fancy be transformed 
Into fleet Oreads, sporting visibly. 
The Zephyrs fanning, as they passed, their wings. 
Lacked not for love fair objects that they wooed 
With gentle whisper. Withered boughs grotesque, 
Stripped of their leaves and twigs by hoary age . . . 
These were the lurking satyrs, a wild brood," etc. 



98 A MIDSUMMER NIGHT ^S DREAM. [ACT Y. 

Theseus. Come now ; what masques, what dances shall we 
have 
Between our after-supper and bed-time ? 
Where is our usual manager of mirth ? 
What revels are in hand ? Is there no play ? 
Call Philostrate. 

Pliilostrate. Here, mighty Theseus. 

Theseus. Say, what abridgment have you for this evening ? 
What masque ? what music ? How shall we beguile 40 
The lazy time, if not with some delight ? 

Philostrate. There is a brief how many sports are ripe : 
Make choice of which your highness will see first. 

\_Oivmg a paper. 

Lysander. ' The battle with the Centaurs, to he sung 
By an Athenian eunuch to the harp.' 45 

Theseus. We'll none of that : that have I told my love, 
In glory of my kinsman Hercules. 



33. after-supper— a dessert [Staunton] ? later or second supper [NaresJ? 
the time after supper [Schmidt] ? rear-supper, a banquet so called, which 
was taken after the meal [Wright]? — 38. Philostrate. Egeus in the folio. 
Philostrate was master of the revels. See Dramatis Personse, and I, i, 11. — 
39. abridgment = that which makes the time seem short . . . pastime, 
diversion, amusement [Zupitza, 1885, quoted by FurnessJ ? — See our ed. of 
Hamlet, II, ii, 408. — 42. brief = short account, enumeration [Steevens] ? — 
ripe = ready for representation [Wright]? — 43. of which. Abbott, 179. 
44. The quartos give all the lines, 45-60, to Theseus. In the folios Lysan- 
der is made to read from the brief, and Theseus comments upon each 
descriptive title as read by Lysander. This is more dramatic, and more 
in accordance with the dignity of Theseus. Accordingly, although Lysan- 
der is no courtier, we follow Furness, w4io is quite sure that folio 1 was 
printed from a stage copy. Verplanck suggests that the arrangement in 
folio 1 was an afterthought to add to the theatrical effect. — 45. battle 
with the centaurs. Pirithous, King of the Lapithae in Thessaly, was 
the son of Zeus. Having obtained the hand of Hippodamia, daughter of 
the King of Argos, he invited the Lapithae and the Centaui'S (half man, 
half horse, as the American aborigines imagined the Spanish horsemen 
to be!) to the wedding. The feast became a fight. Heated by wine, the 
Centaurs attempted to carry off Hippodamia and the other women. 
Theseus assisted Pirithous. The battle was celebrated in song, legend, 
and art. Says old Nestor in Homer's Iliad (i, 262-268), "I never since 
saw, nor am I like to see again, such men as Pirithous and Dryas, shep- 
herd of the peoples, and Caeneus, and Exadius, and godlike Polyphemus, 
and Theseus, son of ^geus, like the immortals. Mightiest, indeed, were 
they reared up of earth-born men; mightiest, indeed, they were, and they 
fought with the mightiest, with Centaurs of the mountain caves, and 
terribly slew them." Shakespeare may have drawn from this, or from 
Ovid's Metamorphoses, book xii. — 47. in glory, etc. Shakes, has given 
to Theseus the attributes of a real hero, amongst which modesty is in- 
cluded. He has attributed the glory to his kinsman Hercules." Knight, 



SCENE I.] A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM. 99 

Ly Sander. ' The riot of the tipsy Bacchanals, 
Tearing the Thracian singer in their rage.' 

Theseus. That is an old device ; and it was play'd 50 

When I from Thebes came last a conqueror. 

Lysander. ' The thrice three Muses mourning for the death 
Of Learning, late deceased in beggary.' 

Theseus. That is some satire, keen and criticalj 
Kot sorting with a nuptial ceremony. 55 

Lysander. ^ A tedious brief scene of young Pyramus 
And his love Thisbe; very tragical mirth.' 

Theseus. Merry and tragical ! Tedious and brief ! 
That is, hot ice and wondrous strange snow. 
How shall we find the concord of this discord ? 60 



— 48. Bacchanals. The Thracian women, worshippers of Bacchus, god 
of wine, in their drunken rage at Orpheus, tore him in pieces, because, 
absorbed in grief at the loss of his wife Eurydice, he cared nothing for 
them. [See note in our ed. of Milton's Lycidas, on lines 58-63.] They 
threw his head into the river. 

" By the rout that made the hideous roar 
His gory visage down the stream was sent, 
Down the swift Hebrus to the Lesbian shore." 

— 52. muses. These nine daughters of Jupiter and Mnemosyne (Memory) 
were supposed to preside over music, song, poetry, and the fine arts: 
Calliope, over heroic poetry, eloquence, rhetoric; Clio, history; ErSto, 
love poetry, marriage; Euterpe, music, lyric poetry; Melpomene, trag- 
edy; Polymnia, sacred poetry, oratory, myths, and fables; Terpsichore, 
choral dance and song; Thalia (not Thalia), comedy, burlesque, pastoral 
poetry; Urania, mathematics, astronomy, astrology. — 53. Learning, 
etc. Warburton (1747) first sugg-ested that here is a reference to Spen- 
ser's Teares of the Muses (pub. in 1591) ; Steeveus (1778) remarked that 
it might refer to Spenser's distressing circumstances and death in 1599; 
Knight (1840) argued that Robert Greene's death in extreme poverty in 
1592 was meant. The majority incline, with W. A. Wright (1877), to 
think that Spenser's poem at least suggested to Shakespeare a title for the 
piece submitted to Theseus. See /'Mr^iess, pp. 256-259. — 54. critical = 
censorious [Wright, Schmidt, Hudson, etc.]? — Root skar, to separate; 
whence 'shear,' 'skill,' etc.; Gr. Kpiveiv, krinein, to separate; to judge; 
KptTJj?, krites, a judge ; Kpn-qpiov, kriterion, a test ; /cpiriKo?, kritikos, critical. 

— "I am nothing, if not critical," says lago, Othello, II, i, 118. — 66. Pyra- 
mus, etc. I, ii, 10, et seq. — 59. strange snow=unnatural, anomalous, pro- 
digious snow [Cowden-Clarkes] ? The antithesis, memj and tragical, hot 
ice, etc., have set the editors at work to find some antithesis to snoio. 
Thus the Collier MS. has 'seething snow'; Upton and Capell suggest 
'black snow'; Staunton and Dyce, ' swarthy snow ' ; Haumer 'scorching 
snow'; Bailey, Keightley, Elze, 'sable snow'; Bailey again, 'orange 
(or raven, or azure) snow ' ; Herr, ' sooty snow ' ; Wetherell, ' wind-restrain- 
ing snow ' ; Nicholson, ' staining snow ' ; Joicey, ' flaming snow ' ; Orger, 
•fiery snow'; Ebsworth, 'scalding snow'; Perring, 'jet snow.' Pope 
omits the line ; Warburton reads ' strange shew.' There is no law against 
carrying this guess-work still further ! -—"wondrous. Syllables ? Abbott-^ 



100 A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DUE AM. [ACT V. 

Philostrate. A play there is, my lord, some ten words long, 
Which, is as brief as I have known a play ; 
But by ten words, my lord, it is too long, 
Which makes it tedious -, for in all the play 
There is not one word apt, one player fitted. 65 

And tragical, my noble lord, it is ; 
For Pyramus therein doth kill himself : 
Which, when I saw rehears'd, I must confess, 
Made mine eyes water ; but more merry tears 
The passion of loud laughter never shed. 70 

Theseus. What are they that do play it ? 

Philostrate. Hard-handed men that work in Athens here. 
Which never labor' d in their minds till now ; 
And now have toil'd their unbreath'd memories 
With this same play, against your nuptial. 75 

Theseus. And we will hear it. 

Philostrate. No, my noble lord; 

It is not for you : I have heard it over. 
And it is nothing, nothing in the world, 
Unless you can find sport in their intents, 
Extremely stretch'd and conn'd with cruel pain, 80 

To do you service. 

Theseus. I will hear that play ; 

For never anything can be amiss. 
When simpleness and duty tender it. 
Go, bring them in : and take your places, ladies. 

[Exit Philostrate. 

Hippolyta. I love not to see wretchedness o'ercharg'd 85 
And duty in his service perishing. 

Theseus. Why, gentle sweet, you shall see no such thing. 

477. — 65. fitted. I, ii, 57. — 74. unbreath'd = unexercised, unpracticed 
[Schmidt]? untrained [Wright]? See our As You Like It, I, ii, 199; 
Hamlet, V, ii, 167. —75. nuptial. I, i, 125 ; Tempest, V, i, 308. —76. And 
= yes: and? See As You Like It, III, ii, 169; Ahhott, 97.-79. ''Their 
' intents ' or endeavors have been strained to the utmost to learn their 
parts, which they have conned or studied with cruel pain." Wright. 
^^ Intents here, as the subject of the two verbs, 'stretched' and 'conned,' is 
used both for endeavor and the object of endeavor, by a license which other 
writers than Shakespeare have assumed." R. G. White. Furness concurs 
with White, and cites, as a parallel to ' extremely stretch'd,' the words 
' rack'd to the uttermost ' in Mer. of Ven., I, ii, 181. — 82, 83. In these and 
the following lines to 105, we surely ' hear the voice of Shakespeare, plead- 
ing the cause of patient effort against the scorn of a hard and narrow 
dilettantism . . . The greatest genius was one who could show most 
sympathy with incompleteness and failure.' Julia Wedgewood, 1890, 



SCENE I.] A MIDSUMMER NIGHT^S DREAM. lOl 

Hippolyta. He says they can do nothing in this kind. 

Theseus. The kinder we, to give them thanks for nothing. 
Our sport shall be to take what they mistake : 90 

And what poor duty cannot do, noble respect 
Takes it in might, not merit. 
Where I have come, great clerks have purposed 
To greet me with premeditated welcomes ; 
Where I have seen them shiver and look pale, 95 

Make periods in the midst of sentences. 
Throttle their practic'd accent in their fears. 
And in conclusion dumbly have broke off, 
ISTot paying me a welcome. Trust me, sweet. 
Out of this silence yet I pick'd a welcome ; lOO 

And in the modesty of fearful duty 
I read as much as from the rattling tongue 
Of saucy and audacious eloquence. 
Love, therefore, and tongue-tied simplicity 
In least speak most, to my capacity. 105 

Enter Philostrate. 

Philostrate. So please your grace, the Prologue is address'd. 
Theseus. Let him approach. [Flourish of trumpets. 

quoted by Furness. — 88, 89. kind . . . kinder. Verbal play?— Words 
are very 'much alive in Shakes. Thus in Cymbeline, III, iii, 7, 8, rock 
suggests hardly. "Hail, thou fair heaven! We house in the rock, yet 
use thee not so hardly," etc. — so take and mistake in the next line; also 
note on line 123. — 90. take, etc. = accept with pleasure even their blunder- 
ing attempts [Steevens] ? — 91, 92. noble respect, etc. = noble respect 
" accommodates its judgment to the abilities of the performers, not to the 
worth of the performance [Schmidt] ? AVright substantially concurs with 
Schmidt. Furness remarks, "The difficulty here has arisen, I think, in 
taking might in the sense of poiver, ability, rather than in the sense of 
loill ; Kenrick states the meaning concisely when he says it is about the 
same as ' taking the will for the deed.' " — 93. clerks. Gr. /cAr)po?, kleros, 
a lot, portion, inheritance ; A. S. clerc, a priest. In ecclesiastical writers 
the 'clergy' were so called because the Lord was their inheritance. As 
learning was mostly confined to the clergy, the word ' clerk ' came to 
mean a scholar. — What is said here by Theseus is supposed by Blakeway 
to allude to "what happened at AVarwick, Avhere the recorder, being to 
address the Queen (Elizabeth), was so confounded by the dignity of her 
presence as to be unable to proceed with his speech"; whereat "her 
Majesty was very well pleased." Quoted by Furness. So in Pericles, 
Act V, Prologue, 5, " Deep clerks she dumbs." — 96. periods. A trace of 
the schoolmaster? See on 'comma,' in our ed. of Hamlet, V, ii, 42. — 
98. Ellipsis? Abbott, 399. — 102. fearful = full of fear? inspiring fear? 
Line 21 ; Jul. Cses., V, i, 10. — 106. to my capacity = as far as I am able 
to understand [Wright]? in my opinion [Schmidt]? — 107. address'd = 



102 A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM. [ACT V. 

Enter Quince as the Prologue. 

Prologue. If we offend, it is our good will. 

That you should think, we come not to offend, 
But with good will. To show our simple skill, 110 

That is the true beginning of our end. 
Consider then we come but in despite. 

We do not come as minding to content you. 
Our true intent is. All for your delight 

We are not here. That you should here repent you. 
The actors are at hand, and by their show 
You shall know all that you are like to know. 

Theseus. This fellow doth not stand upon points. 118 

Ly Sander. He hath rid his prologue like a rough colt ; he 
knows not the stop. A good moral, my lord: it is not 
enough to speak, but to speak true. 

Hippolyta. Indeed he hath played on his prologue like a 
child on a recorder ; a sound, but not in government. 

Theseus. His speech was like a tangled chain ; nothing 
impaired, but all disordered. Who is next? 125 

ready? See in our Jul. Cses., Ill, i, 29. — 109. Prologue. "From the 
Prologue to Beaumont and Fletcher's Woman Hater, 1607, we learn that 
it was, even at that date, customary for the person who delivered that 
portion of the performance, to be furnished with a garland of bay, as well 
as with a black velvet cloak . . . The bay was the emblem of authorship, 
and the use of this arose out of the custom for the author or a person rep- 
resenting him, to speak the prologue." Collier, quoted by Furness. — The 
reader will do Avell to re-punctuate this prologue so as to show the 
true meaning. " The stage trick," says Moberly, " is like that in the old 
comedy (1553) of Roister Doister (from Avhich Shakespeare took many 
hints), where the hero's love-letter begins — 

" Sweet Mistress, where as I love thee nothing at all, 
Kegarding your substance and riches chief of all ; 
For your personage, beauty, demeanor, and wit, 
I commend me unto you never a whit ; sorry," etc. 

— 118. doth not stand upon points = is not over scrupulous [Schmidt] ? 
is not very particular [Wright] ? does not observe punctuation points? — 
points = punctilios ? punctuation marks ? — 120. stop. A term in horse- 
manship [Wright] ? a punctuation mark ? — 123. recorder = wind instru- 
ment like a flageolet? See our ed. of first two books Par. Lost, i, 551; 
Hamlet, III, ii, 321. Shakes, twice uses 'record' of the nightingale's 
singing. Perhaps akin to accord ; Lat. ad, to ; cor, cord-is, the Jieart ; and 
influenced in meaning by cliord, musical string ; Gr. xopH, chorde, Lat. 
chorda, gut, as cat-gut. — "To record anciently signified to modulate." 
Singer. — 123. government. " Govern these ventages [of the recorder] 
with your fingers and thumb; " our Hamlet, III, ii, 333. — Note the tran- 
sition of ideas, word suggesting word, the mind leaping from one sense to 
another — * points,' ' colt/ ' stop,' ' recorder,' ' government.' See note on 
lines 88, 89 ; also our ^5 Yoic L. I., II, vii, 44. — 125. next. Here the old 



SCENE I.] A MIDSUMMER NIGHT^S DREAM. 103 

Tawyer with a trumpet before them. 
Enter Pyeamus and Thisbe, Wall, Moonshine, and Lion. 

Prologue. Gentles, perchance yoii wonder at this show ; 

But wonder on, till truth make all things plain. 
This man is Pyramus, if you would know ; 

This beauteous lady Thisby is certain. 
This man, with lime and rough-cast, doth present 130 

Wall, that vile wall which did these lovers sunder ; 
And through Wall's chink, poor souls, they are content 

To whisper ; at the which let no man wonder. 
This man, with lanthorn, dog, and bush of thorn, 

Presenteth Moonshine ; for, if you will know, 135 

By moonshine did these lovers think no scorn 

To meet at Ninus' tomb, there, there to woo. 
This grisly beast, which Lion hight by name. 
The trusty Thisby, coming first by night. 
Did scare away, or rather did affright ; 140 

And, as she fled, her mantle she did fall, 

Which Lion vile with bloody mouth did stain. 
Anon comes Pyramus, sweet youth and tall. 

And finds his trusty Thisby 's mantle slain : 
Whereat, with blade, with bloody blameful blade, 145 

He bravely broach'd his boiling bloody breast ; 
And Thisby tarrying in mulberry shade. 

His dagger drew, and died. For all the rest, 
Let Lion, Moonshine, Wall, and lovers twain. 
At large discourse, while here they do remain. 150 

[^Exeunt Prologue, Pyramus, Thisbe, Lion, and Moonshine. 

Theseus. I wonder if the lion be to speak. 

Demetrius. No wonder, my lord : one lion may, when many 
asses do. 



stage direction occurs, "Tawyer with a Trumpet," etc. Halliwell dis- 
covered, says Furness, that " Tawyer was a subordinate in the pay of 
Hemings," and buried at St, Savior's in Southwark in June, 1625. — 
134. man, with lanthorn, etc. See III, i, 52 ; our Temjjest, II, ii, 126. — 
138. grisly. See our ed. of Lady of the Lake, I, xxxiv, 704, p. 42. —hight 
= is called? A. S. hataji, Goth, haitan, Ger. heissen, to be called. — 
141. fall = drop? So in As You Like It, III, v, 5 ; Jul. Cms., IV, ii, 26, 
etc. — 144. trusty. Not in folio 1 ; supplied from the quartos : the other 
folios have gentle. Better? — 14-5, 146. Excessive alliteration ridiculed 
here? — See on II, i, 161; our Macbeth, III, ii, 23; IV, i, 10; Corson's 



104 A MIDSUMMER NIGHT 'S DREAM. [act V. 

Wall. In this same interlude it doth befall 
That I, one Snout by name, present a wall ; 
And such a wall, as I would have you think, 155 

That had in it a crannied hole or chink, 
Through which the lovers, Pyramus and Thisby, 
Did whisper often very secretly. 
This loam, this rough-cast, and this stone, doth show 
That I am that same wall ; the truth is so : 160 

And this the cranny is, right and sinister, 
Through which the fearful lovers are to whisper. 

Theseus. Would you desire lime and hair to speak better ? 

Demetrius. It is tlie wittiest partition that ever I heard 
discourse, my lord. 105 

Enter Pyramus. 

Theseus. Pyramus draws near the wall : silence ! 
Pyramus. grim-look'd night! night with hue so 
black! 

night, which ever art when day is not I 
O night, night ! alack, alack, alack, 

1 fear my Thisby's promise is forgot ! 170 
And thou, wall, sweet, lovely wall. 

That stand'st between her father's ground and mine ! 
Thou wall, wall, sweet and lovely wall. 

Show me thy chink, to blink through with mine eyne ! 

[TFa/^ holds up his fingers. 
Thanks, courteous wall : Jove shield thee well for this ! 175 

But what see I ? No Thisby do I see. 
O wicked wall, through whom I see no bliss ! 

Curst be thy stones for thus deceiving me ! 

Theseus. The wall, methinks, being sensible, should curse 
again. I80 

Pyramus. No, in truth, sir, he should not. '^ Deceiving 



Primer of English Verse, pp. 9-18. — 154. Snout. So the folio. The 
quartos have Flute. But see I, ii, 36. — 156. crannied. Golding's trans- 
lation of Ovid, from which Shakespeare is supposed to have drawn the 
story, has the line (in iv) , 

" The wall that parted house from house had riuen therein a cranie." 

162. sinister = left. The meaning inauspicious is a Greek notion, as 
the Greek augurs faced north and had the unlucky quarter, the west, on 
the left hand. — 167. grim-look'd. Abbott, 374. — 174. eyne. I, i, 242, 



SCENE I.] A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'' S DREAM. 105 

me " is Thisby's cue : she is to enter now, and I am to spy 
her through the wall. You shall see, it will fall pat as I 
told you. Yonder she comes. 184 

Enter Thisbe. 

Thisbe. wall, full often hast thou heard my moans, 

Eor parting my fair Pyramus and me ! 
My cherry lips have often kiss'd thy stones. 

Thy stones with lime and hair knit up in thee. 

Pyramus. I see a voice : now will I to the chink, 

To spy an I can hear my Thisby's face. 190 

Thisby! 

Tliisbe. My love thou art, my love I think. 

Pyramus. Think what thou wilt, I am thy lover's grace; 
And, like Limander, am I trusty still. 

TJiisbe. And I like Helen, till the Fates me kill. 

Pyramus. Not Shafalus to Procrus was so true. 

TJiisbe. As Shafalus to Procrus, I to you. 

Pyramus. 0, kiss me through the hole of this vile Avail ! 

Thisbe. I kiss the wall's hole, not your lips at all. 

Pyramus. Wilt thou at Ninny's tomb meet me straight- 
way ? 

Thisbe. Tide life, tide death, I come without delay. 200 

\_Exeunt Pyramus and Thisbe. 

Wall. Thus have I, Wall, my part discha,rged so ; 
And, being done, thus Wall away doth go. \_Exit. 

Theseus. Now is the moral down between the two neighbors. 

Demetrius. No remedy, my lord, when walls are so will- 
ful to hear without warning. 206 

— 183. pat. See on III, i, 2.— 188. up in thee. Instead of this the 
quartos have noio again, a variation showing " that the copy of 2d quarto 
. . . furnished as copy to the printers of folio 1, had been corrected^ by 
Shakespeare or some one else in his theatre. White. — 189. I see a voice, 
etc. IV, i, 206. — 193-199. Limander for Leander {As You L. I., IV, i, 
90, 95) ; Helen for Hero ; Shafalus, Cephalus (III, ii, 389) ; Procrus, Pro- 
cris; Ninny, Ninus (III, i, 88). For Cephalus and his wife Procris (or 
Procne), and their ill-starred marriage, see Class Diet. — 200. tide. 
Root DA, to divide ; A. S. tid (fr. same root as A. S. tima, time), a division 
of time, hour; tidan, ge-tidan, to happen; hence betide. — 203. moral. 
So the folio. Many are the explanations and emendations of this word, 
none of them quite satisfactory. Furness is inclined to think White's 
explanation best; viz. that in moral, mo-ral, moo-ral, mure-all (Lat. 
murus, a wall; mwre is wall in 2 Henry IV, IV, iv, 119), there is a pun, 
now lost. —206. hear without warning. "Walls have earsl" "A 



106 A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM. [ACT V. 

Hippolyta. This is the silliest stuff that ever I heard. 

Theseus. The best in this kind are but shadows ; and the 
worst are no worse, if imagination amend them. 

Hippolyta. It must be your imagination then, and not 
theirs. 

Theseus. If we imagine no worse of them than they of 
themselves, they may pass for excellent men. Here come 
two noble beasts, in a man and a lion. 214 

Enter Lion and Moonshine. 

Lion. You, ladies, you, whose gentle hearts do fear 

The smallest monstrous mouse that creeps on floor, 
May now perchance both quake and tremble here, 

When lion rough in wildest rage doth roar. 
Then know that I, one Snug the joiner, am 
A lion fell, nor else no lion's dam ; 220 

For, if I should as lion come in strife 
Into this place, 'twere pity on my life. 

Theseus. A very gentle beast, and of a good conscience. 

Demetrius. The very best at a beast, my lord, that e'er I 
saw. 

Lysander. This lion is a very fox for his valor. 

Theseus. True ; and a goose for his discretion. 

Demetrius. Not so, my lord; for his valor cannot carry 
his discretion ; and the fox carries the goose. 

Theseus. His discretion, I am sure, cannot carry his 
valor ; for the goose carries not the fox. It is well : leave 
it to his discretion, and let us listen to the moon. 232 

Moonshine. This lanthorn doth the horned moon present ; — 

Demetrius. He should have worn the horns on his 
head. 



between almost any two neighbors would soon be doivn, were it to 
exercise this faculty, without previous learning." Farmer, approved by 
Furness. —208, 20i). The best, etc. A pithy sentence to be ' chewed and 
digested.' — 214. beasts, in a =:= beasts in the character of [Wright] ? We 
follow the punctuation of all the early editions. Many make the comma 
follow i/?,. — man. Theobald changed this to moon; but Harness re- 
marks, " Theseus saw merely a man with a lantern, and could not possi- 
bly conceive that he was to ^disfigure moonshine.' " — 220. fell. A. S. 
f'el, fierce, dire; Dan. fgsl, hideous, grim, horrid. Skeat. Macbeth, IV, 
ii^70.— 224. best . . . beast. Verbal play? White says they were pro- 
nounced alike. But — ? — See note in our Tempest, III, i, 15. — 233. lan- 
thorn. See on 111, i, 53. Douce thinks the horn, for glass, is referred to 



SCENE I.] A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM. 107 

Theseus. He is no crescent, and his horns are invisible 
within the circumference. 

Moonshine. This lantliorn doth the horned moon present ; 
Myself the man i' the moon do seem to be. 

Theseus. This is the greatest error of all the rest: the 
man should be put into the lanthorn. How is it else the 
man i' the moon ? 241 

Demetrius. He dares not come there for the candle ; for, 
you see, it is already in snuff. 

Hippolyta. I am aweary of this moon : would he would 
change ! 

Theseus. It appears, by his small light of discretion, that 
he is in the wane ; but yet, in courtesy, in all reason, we 
must stay the time. 

Ly Sander. Proceed, Moon. 

Moonshine. All that I have to say is to tell you that the 
lanthorn is the moon ; I, the man i' the moon ; this thorn- 
bush, my thorn-bush ; and this dog, my dog. 252 

Demetrius. Why, all these should be in the lanthorn; 
for they are in the moon. But silence ! here comes Thisbe. 



Enter Thisbe. 

Thisbe. This is old Ninny's tomb. AVhere is my love ? 

Lio7i. [Roaring^ Oh 

Demetrius. Well roared, Lion. 



Lio7i. [Roaring^ Oh [^Thisbe runs off. 

dl re 



in 'horned moon.' — 235. crescent = waxing (moon) ? Lat. crescere, to 
grow, see 'in. the wane,' line 2'47. — 238. man i' the moon. "From 
tender years every Englisli-speaking child knows that there is a man in 
the moon, and is familiar with his premature descent and with his mys- 
terious desire to visit the town of Norwich. Which is all we need to know 
here." Furness. See III, i, 48, and our Tempest, II, ii, 126; Grimm's 
German Mythology, p. 412. — 239. the greatest error of all the rest. 
Like Milton's lines {Par. Lost, iv, 323, 324), 

" Adam the g-oodliest man of men since born 
His sons, the fairest of her daughters, Eve." 

Abbott, 409, makes this 'a thoroughly Greek idiom.' — of = compared 
with? — See our Macbeth, V, viii, 4. — 243. snuff = both the cinder of a 
candle and hasty anger [Johnson]? — Quibble? " To take in snuff is to 
offend." Wright. See Hotspur's 

" A pouncet-box, Avhich ever and anon 
He gave his nose and took 't away again ; 
Who, therewith angry, when it next came there, 
Took it in snuff." 1 Henry IV, I, iii, 38-41. 

244. aweary. See our ed. of Macbeth, V, iv, 49; our Mer. of Ven., I, 



l08 A MIDSUMMER NIGHT^S DREAM. [act V. 

Theseus. Well run, Thisbe. 

Hippolyta. Well shone, Moon. Truly, the moon shines 
with a good grace. [ The Lion shakes Thishe^s mwitle, and 

\_exit. 
Theseus. Well moused. Lion. 260 

Demetrius. And then came Py ramus. 
Lysander. And so the lion vanished. 

Enter Pyramus. 

Pyramus. Sweet Moon, I thank thee for thy sunny beams ; 
I thank thee. Moon, for shining now so bright ; 
For, by thy gracious, golden, glittering beams, 265 

I trust to take of truest Thisbe sight. 
But stay, spite ! 
But mark, poor knight. 
What dreadful dole is here ! 

Eyes, do you see ? 270 

How can it be ? 
dainty duck ! dear ! 
Thy mantle good. 
What, stain'd with blood ! 
Approach, ye Furies fell ! 275 

Fates, come, come ! 
Cut thread and thrum ; 
Quail, crush, conclude, and quell! 
Theseus. This passion, and the death of a dear friend, 
would go near to make a man look sad. 280 

Hippolyta. Beshrew my heart, but I pity the man. 

ii, 1; Jul. Gxs., IV, iii, 94. Abbott, 2i. — 260. moused = acted mouse- 
fashion? cat-fashion, as in tearing a mouse? — Macbeth, II, iv, 13. — 
265. beams. We follow here folio 1 and the quartos. The other folios 
have 'streams.' Most recent editors adopt Knight's reading 'gleams.' 
But it is Bottom that is talking of the ' sunny beams ' of the moon ; and 
we say after Furness, "The fact that ' beams ' is wrong and ' streams ' or 
' gleams ' manifestly right, seems to me the very reason why it [beams] 
should be retained in the speech of one whose eye had not heard, nor his 
ear seen, nor his hand tasted," etc. (See IV, i, 206-209. )— 275. Furies. 
Lat. FurlsB ; Gr, Epti/u'e?, Erinyes, avenging deities ; Alecto (relentless) ; 
Megsera (grudging, grim) ; Tisiphone (avenger of murder) . — 277. thread, 
and tlirum = everything in general [Wright] ? warp and woof? — A. S. 
thrawan, drehen, to twist; thrsed, thread ; Icel. thromr, edge, verge, brim, 
rough edge of a web ; allied to Gr. rep/xa, terma. Lat. terminus, end, 
limit, term. Hence thrum, the tufted end of a weaver's thread, coarse 
yarn. Skeat. — 278. quell. A. S. cioellan, to kill. See our Macbeth, I, 
vii, 72.— 281. beshrew. II, ii, 54. 



SCENE I.] A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DItEAM. 109 

Pyramiis. wherefore, Nature, didst thou lions frame ? 
Since lion vile hath here deflower'd my dear : 
Which is — no, no — which was the fairest dame 

That liv'd, that lov'd, that lik'd, that look'd with cheer. 285 
Come, tears, confound; 
Out, sword, and wound 
The pap of Pyramus ; 
Ay, that left pap. 

Where heart doth hop : [Stabs himself. 
Thus die I, thus, thus, thus ! 291 

Now am I dead. 
Now am I fled ; 
My soul is in the sky : 

Tongue, lose thy light ; 295 

Moon, take thy flight : [Exit Moonshine. 

Now die, die, die, die, die ! [Dies. 

Demetrius. No die, but an ace, for him ; for he is but one. 

Lysander. Less than ace, man; for he is dead; he is 

nothing. 

Theseus. With the help of a surgeon he might yet recover, 
and prove an ass. 302 

Hippolyta. How chance Moonshine is gone before Thisbe 
comes back and finds her lover ? 

Theseus. She will find him by starlight. Here she comes ; 
and her passion ends the play. 

Enter Thisbe. 

Hippolyta. Methinks she should not use a long one for 

such a Pyramus : I hope she will be brief. 308 

Demetrius. A mote will turn the balance, which Pyramus, 



285. cheer = cheerfulness [Wright] ? countenance [Rolfe] ? Ill, ii, 96. 
See our Jid. Cses., Ill, i, 90. — 286. confound. Our Macbeth, II, 
ii, 11.— 289. pap. Note the rhyme, as in the Scotch!— 295. tongue, 
lose thy light. Bottomese ? — Capell, who, if less learned, would 
have made a good Bottom, suggested that "tongue, instead of sunne 
or sun, is a very choice blunder." Halliwell thinks 'tongue' 'too 
absurd to be humorous.' —299. ace = the 'one spot' on cards or dice? 
Lat. as, a unit; Gr. el?, eis, one. — 303. How chance. I, i, 129; 
Abbott, 37. — 310. mote. The old copies have moth, meaning mote, 
and so pronounced.— Ill, i, 150. —which Pyramus, which Thisbe. 
" Hard to exijlain, unless ' which ' is used for ' whether.' " Abbott, 273. — 
311, 312. he for a man . . . God bless us. This, omitted in the folio, 
is supplied from the quartos. The omission was perhaps due to the 



110 



A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM. 



[act 



which Thisbe, is the better ; he for a man, G-od warned lis ! 
she, for a woman, God bless us ! 

Ly Sander. She hath spied him already with those sweet 



eyes. 

Demetrius. 
Thisbe. 



And thus she means, videlicet : — 

Asleep, my love ? 

What, dead, my dove ? 
Pyramus, arise ! 

Speak, speak. Quite dumb ? 

Dead, dead ? A tomb 
Must cover thy sweet eyes. 

These lily lips, 

This cherry nose. 
These yellow cowslip cheeks. 

Are gone, are gone. 

Lovers, make moan ! 
His eyes were green as leeks. 

sisters three ! 

Come, come to me, 
With hands as pale as milk ; 

Lay them in gore. 

Since you have shore 
With shears his thread of silk. 

Tongue, not ?. word : 

Come, trusty sword ; 
Come, blade, my breast imbrue : ^Stabs herself. 

And, farewell, friends ; 336 

Thus Thisbe ends : 
Adieu, adieu, adieu ! [^Dies. 



315 



320 



325 



330 



Statute of 1605, imposing a penalty of £10 on any player who should 
' jestingly or prophanely speak or use the holy name of God.' — warned, 
niay be for ivay^n as in As You L. I., IV, i, 69; or for loaivxmt in same 
play, III, iii, 4. Staunton conjectured that ' warnd ' should he 'ward' : 
and he interpreted thus: "From such a man, God defend us; from such 
a woman, God save us." — 314. means = complains, laments? — Like 
videlicet (= to wit, viz. : as in As Yoii L. I., IV, i, 87), 'means,' which 
most editors have changed to ' moans,' is said to he a legal term, ' a com- 
mon term in the Scotch law, signifying to tell, to relate, to declare.' 
" Jamieson, Scotch Diet., gives: To mene, nieane, to utter complaints, to 
make lamentations." Furness. — 321. lips, etc. This is comic ; but less 
so than the attempts of some of the editors to make sense out of this 
intentional nonsense. — 327. sisters three. Launcelot's phrase (iJ/er. o/ 
Fen., II, ii, 54). The Fates (Lat. Farcss, Gr. Moi'pat, Moirai), Clotho, 
Lachesis, and Atropos, respectively, spun the thread of life, determined 
its length, and cut it asunder. See Class. Dlct. — ooi. shore. "The 



SCENE I.] A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM. Ill 

Theseus. Moonshine and Lion are left to bury the dead. 

Demetrius. Ay, and Wall too. 340 

Bottom. [Starting uj)'] No, I assure you ; the wall is down 
that parted their fathers. Will it please you to see the epi- 
logue, or to hear a Bergomask dance between two of our 
company ? 344 

Theseus. No epilogue I pray you ; for your play needs no 
excuse. Never excuse ; for when the players are all dead, 
there need none to be blamed. Marry, if he that writ it had 
played Pyramus and hanged himself in Thisbe's garter, it 
would have been a fine tragedy : and so it is, truly ; and very 
notably discharged. But, come, your Bergomask : let your 
epilogue alone. [J. dance. 

The iron tongue of midnight hath told twelve : 352 

Lovers, to bed ; 'tis almost fairy time. 
I fear we shall out-sleep the coming morn 
As much as we this night have overwatch'd. 355 

This palpable-gross play hath well beguil'd 
The heavy gait of night. Sweet friends, to bed. 
A fortnight hold we this solemnity, 
In nightly revels and new jollity. [^Exeunt. 

Enter Puck. 

Puck. Now the hungry lion roars, 360 

And the wolf behowls the moon, 
Whilst the heavy plowman snores, 
All with weary task fordone. 



rhyme is too much for this Thisbe's grammar." Wright. In Othello, V, 
ii, 205; shore is old past tense of 'shear.' A. S. sceran; Du. scheren, to 
cut. — 343. Bergomask. " In Italian ' Bergamasca ' is a kind of dance, 
so called from Bergamo, or from a song formerly sung in Florence." 
Wright. Bergamo is the name of a province and fortified city in Italy. 
The people were noted for their clownishness. The Italian buffoons used 
to imitate their jargon and their dancing. — 357. heavy gait = slow prog- 
ress [Steevens] ? — "Our Hamlet, I, ii, 31, on gait. — The folio has gate, 
which Rowe and Pope adopt. Johnson, and all since, change to gait. See 
line 403. — Icel. gata, way, path, road; Mid. E. gate, a way; a manner of 
walking. * And goth him forth, and in his gate ' = and goes forth, and in 
his way ; Gowev, \'o7ifessio Amantis, iii, 196. Skeat. — 360-390. Says Cole- 
ridge, " There is nothing in Anacreou more perfect than these thirty lines, 
or half so rich and imaginative." — 361. behowls. Warburton's emen- 
dation for 'beholds.' As You L. I., V, ii, 103. For the force of the pre- 
fix be-, see note on beshreio in our ed. of Hamlet, II, i, 113. 'Howl,' like 
owl, is of course onomatopoetic. — 363. fordone = overcome [Dyce]? 



112 A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM. [act V. 

Now the wasted brands do glow, 

Whilst the screech-owl, screeching loud, 365 

Puts the wretch that lies in woe 

In remembrance of a shroud. 
Now it is the time of night 

That the graves, all gaping wide. 
Every one lets forth his sprite, 370 

In the church-way paths to glide : 
And we fairies, that do run 

By the triple Hecate's team, 
From the presence of the sun. 

Following darkness like a dream, 375 

Now are frolic ; not a mouse 
Shall disturb this hallow'd house : 
I am sent with broom before. 
To sweep the dust behind the door. 

Enter Oberon and Titania, with their train. 

Oberon. Though the house give glimmering light 380 

By the dead and drowsy fire. 
Every elf and fairy sprite 

Hop as light as bird from brier ; 
And this ditty, after me 
Sing, and dance it trippingly. 385 



exhausted [Wright] ? ou the signification of the prefix for-, see note on 
fo7xlo in our Hamlet, V, i, 210. —360. time of night, etc. Hamlet, III, 
ii, 363, 364. — 369. that. IV, i, 133 ; Ahhott, 284.-373. triple Hecate's. 
Selene, or Luna in heaven ; Artemis or Diana on earth ; Persephone (Pro- 
serpina) or Hecate in hell. She is sometimes described as having three 
bodies. See our As You L. I., Ill, ii, 2; our Macbeth, 11, i, 52; III, v, 1. 
Milton makes Hecate a dissyl. in Comiis, 135. — team. The chariot of 
the moon was drawn by two or by four horses. Scull. — following 
darkness. IV, i, 93. — 378. with broom. "Robin Goodfellow, and 
the fairies generally, were remarkable for their cleanliness." HalHioell. 
— 379. behind the door. Is the dust swept to or from the space behind 
the door? — 380. Though, etc. White changed through to though, Sixid 
restored the old pronunciation, making tolerable sense of this difficult 
passage. Furness pronounces the change satisfactory. " Plainly Oheron 
does not intend to command his sprites to ' give glimmering light through 
the house hy the dead and drowsy fire,' but to direct every elf and fairy 
sprite to hop as liglit as a bird from brier, though the house give glimmer- 
ing light by the dead and drowsy fire." White's Works of William 
Shakespeare, Boston, 1859, Vol. iv, p. 127.-385. dance it. It used in- 
definitely? Often so in Shakes. As You L. /., I, iii, 120; V, ii, 58; 
Abbott, 226.— 390-410. The quartos give this song to Oberon; in the 



SCENE I.] A .MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM. 



113 



Titania. First, rehearse your song by rote, 
To eacli word a warbling note : 
Hand in hand, with fairy grace, 
Will we sing, and bless this place. 



[^Song and dance. 



Oheron. Now, until the break of day. 

Through this house each fairy stray. 

To the best bride-bed will we ; 

Which by us shall blessed be. 

So shall all the couples three 

Ever true in loving be ; 

And the blots of Nature's hand 

Shall not in their issue stand ; 

Never mole, hare-lip, nor scar, 

Nor mark prodigious, such as are 

Despised in nativity, 

Shall upon their children be. 

With this field-dew consecrate. 

Every fairy take his gait ; 

And each several chamber bless, 

Through this palace, with sweet peace ; 

And the owner of it, blest, 

Ever shall in safety rest. 

Trip away ; 

Make no stay ; 

Meet me all by break of day. 410 

\Exeimt Oheron, Titania, and train. 
Puck. If we shadows have offended. 

Think but this, and all is mended. 

That you have but slumber'd here 

While these visions did appear. 



395 



400 



405 



folios it is unassigned. — 393. blessed, etc. Such blessing by a priest was 
regularly a part of marriage ceremonies. — 399. prodigious = ominous 
of great evil? See our Jul. Cses., I, iii, 76.— 400. nativity = birth ? 
horoscope? — Lat. nascere, to be born; nativitas, Fr. nativite, hirth. — 
402. consecrate. Abbott, 342. — 403. gait. The folio here, as in line 
357, has gate. M. Mason retains 'gate,' and thinks the chamber door is 
meant! ' Samson ? — 404. bless. Like (in L' Allegro, 83, 84,) Milton's 



" Or the bellman's drowsy charm 
To bless the door from mighty harm." 



-|-'4:06, 407. These two lines seem to have been transposed in the first edi- 



114 A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM. [ACT V. SCENE I.] 

And this weak and idle theme, 415 

No more yielding but a dream, 

Gentles, do not reprehend : 

If you pardon, we will mend. 

And, as I'm an honest Puck, 

If we have unearned luck 420 

Now to scape the serpent's tongue, 

We will make amends ere long ; 

Else the Puck a liar call : 

So, good-night unto you all. 

Give me your hands, if we be friends, 425 

And Eobin shall restore amends. [Exit. 



tions. — 411. shadows. V, i, 208.— 419. honest Puck. II, i, 40.— 
"The name [Puck] was no better than fiend or devil." Hudson. — 
420. unearned luck = fortune better than we have deserved [Steevens] ? 
— 421. scape the serpent's tongue = be dismissed without being hissed. 
Steevens quotes Markham's English Arcadia (1607), in which a hiss is 
styled 'a snaky salutation.' — 425. hands = applause, hand-clapping? 
So in the Epilogue to the Tempest, line 10? — 426. restore amends. In 
explanation Rolfe appositely cites the close of Shakespeare's 30th sonnet, 

"All losses are restored, all sorrows end." 



i 1 



APPENDIX. 



DURATION OF THE ACTION, 

Mr. W. A. Wright (C. P. ed., pp. xxii, xxiii) says — "The time is 
about May-day. . , . Theseus' opening words point to April 27, four 
days before the new moon which was to behold the night of his mar- 
riage. . . . The next night, . . . April 28, Lysander appoints for 
Hermia to escape with him from Athens. . . . The night of the 
second day is occupied with the adventures in the wood. . . . The 
morning of the third day is the 1st of May, and the last two days of 
April are lost altogether. ... In 1592, there was a new moon on the 
1st of May ; so that if A 3Iidsummer NighVs Dream was Avritten so 
as to be acted on a May-day, when the actual age of the moon corre- 
sponded with its age in the play, it must have been written for May- 
day, 1592." 

Mr. P. A. Daniel, quoted by Furness, concludes as follows : " Accord- 
ing to the opening speeches of Theseus and Hippolyta in Act I, we 
should have expected the dramatic action to have comprised five days 
exclusive of that Act ; as it is we have only three days inclusive of it. 

"Day 1.— Actl. 

" 2. — Acts II, III, and part of sc. i, Act IV. 

" 3. —Part of sc. i, Act IV, sc. ii. Act IV, and Act V." 

Mr. Fleay, quoted by Furness, would reconcile the apparent incon- 
sistency, thus: " The marriage of Theseus is on the 1st of May ; the 
play opens on the 27th of April ; but, at line 137 [126 in our edition, 
Act I, sc. i], I take it a new scene must begin, and there is no reason 
why it should not be on the 28th or 29th of April. I would place it 
on the 28th. On the 29th the lovers go to the wood, and, in IV, i, 114 
[99 in our edition], when the fairies leave, it is the morning of the 30th. 
But at this point Titania's music has struck 'more dead than common 
sleep ' on the lovers. . . . Surely Act III ends with the fairies' exit, 
and the lovers sleep through the 30th of April, and wake on May 
morning. ... If any one would ask why make them sleep during 
this time, I would answer that the 30th of April, 1592, was a Sunday ! " 

Henry A. Clapp {Atlantic 3IonthIy, March, 1885) suggests that "a 
whole day has somehow dropped out" through Puck's manipulation ! 
"I fancy," he says, " that Shakespeare would smilingly plead guilty, 

115 



116 APPENDIX. 

as an accessory after the fact, to the blunder, and charge the principal 
fault upon Puck and his crew, who would doubtless rejoice in the 
annihilation of a mortal's day." 

Furness (Preface, xxviii-xxxiv) elaborately discusses the subject, and 
concludes that "It is we, after all, not the characters on the stage, 
about whom Shakespeare weaves his spells. It is our eyes that are 
latched with magic juice. The lovers on the stage pass but a single 
night in the enchanted wood, and one dawn awakens them on May- 
day. We, the onlookers, are bound in deeper charms, and must see 
dawn after dawn arise until the tale is told, and, looking back, be 
conscious of the lapse of days as well as of a night." 



HOW TO TEACPI AND STUDY LITERATURE. 

\_From F. G. Fleay''s '■^ Guide to Chaucer and Spenser.'''''] 

No doubtful critical point should ever be set before the student as 
ascertained. One great advantage of these studies is the acquirement 
of a power of forming a judgment in cases of conflictiug evidence. 
Give the student the evidence ; state your own opinion, if you like ; 
but let him judge for himself. 

No extracts or incomplete works should be used. The capability of 
appreciating a whole work, as a whole, is one of the principal aims in 
sesthetic culture. 

It is better to read thoroughly one simple play or poem than to 
know details about all the dramatists and poets. The former trains 
the brain to judge of other plays or poems ; the latter only loads the 
memory with details that can at any time be found, when required, 
in books of reference. 

For these studies to completely succeed, they must be as thorough 
as our classical studies used to be. No diificult point in syntax, pros- 
ody, accidence, or pronunciation ; no variation in manners or customs ; 
no historical or geographical allusion, — must be passed over without 
explanation. This training in exactness will not interfere with, but 
aid, the higher aims of literary training. 

[From Rev. Henry iV. Hudson., Shakespearian Editor.] 

I have never had and never will have anything but simple exercises ; 
the pupils reading the author under the teacher's direction, correc- 
tion, and explanation ; the teacher not even requiring, though usually 
advising, them to read over the matter in advance. Thus it is a joint 
communing of teacher and pupils with the author for the time being ; 
just that, and nothing more. Nor, assuredly, can such communion, 
in so far as it is genial and free, be without substantial and lasting 
good, — far better, indeed, than any possible cramming of mouth and 
memory for recitation. The one thing needful here is, that the pupils 
rightly understand and feel what they read ; this secured, all the rest 
will take care of itself. 



APPENDIX. 117 



\^From Professor J. M. D. Meiklejohn, Univ. of St. Andrews.'] 

The first purpose in this elaborate annotation is, of course, the full 
working out of the author's meaning. . . . This thorough excavation 
of the meaning of a really profound thinker is one of the very best 
kinds of training that a boy or girl can receive at school. . . . And 
always new rewards come to the careful reader — in the shape of new 
meanings, recognitions of thoughts he had before missed, of relations 
between the characters that had before escaped him. ... It is prob- 
able that, for those pupils who do not study either Greek or Latin, 
this close examination of every word and phrase in the text will be 
the best substitute that can be found for the study of the ancient 
classics. 

[From Professor William Taylor Thom.^ 

Coleridge's dictum remains true: "In order to get the full sense 
of a word, we should first present to our minds the visual image that 
forms its primary meaning." 

[From Professor Hiram Corson, of Cornell University.'] 

An indispensable condition of the appreciation of poetic forms is 
a well-cultivated voice. "Without a proper vocal rendering, no poetry, 
worth reading, can be duly appreciated. The articulating thought 
may be got through silent reading ; but the indefinite, informing spirit 
can be reached, if reached at all, only through a proper vocal rendi- 
tion of the verse. 



[From Samuel Thurber, Girls'* High School, Boston.] 

I urge teachers assiduously to cultivate in their pupils the power 
of poetic expression. The poet, the finest of artists, the maker par 
excellence, builds his verse with infinite pains, ordering his accents, 
matching his rhymes, adjusting his pauses, choosing word and phrase 
for effects of melody, fitting his diction to his theme, elaborating fig- 
ures to give new tone and elevation to his thought. To interpret, to 
render, his work requires no painful practice over an instrument of art. 
This is an attainment quite within the power of every human being. 



From all that has been quoted from the foregoing authorities, it 
may justly be inferred that somehow or other the pupil must be made 
to feel an interest in the subject, to admire what is admirable in 
the composition, and really to enjoy its study. Secure this interest, 
admiration, enjoyment ; and all else will follow as a matter of course : 
fail here, and the time is wasted. 



118 APPENDIX. 

Every good teacher will have methods of his own ; but the follow- 
ing suggestions, or some of them, may toe of practical value to most 
instructors : — 

I. The poem should be read very hastily at first, for the outline 

of the story or course of thought. 
II. Having thus grasped it as a whole, it should again be read 
through ; this time, with some care for the details of the 
story and course of thought. 

III. Then the thorough study of each and every part should be 

begun. 

IV. At the beginning of the class exercise, or as often as needful, 

require of the pupil a statement of — 

{a) The main object of the author in the whole poem, 
oration, play, or other production of which to-day's lesson is 
a part. 

(6) The object of the author in this particular canto, 
chapter, act, or other division or subdivision of the main 
work. 
V. Read or recite from memory (or have the pupils do it) the 
finest part or parts of the last lesson. The elocutionary 
talent of the class should be utilized here, in order that the 
author may appear at his best, 

VI. Require at times (often enough to keep the whole fresh in 
memory) a resume of the ' argument,' story, or succession of 
topics, up to the present lesson. 
VII. Have the student read aloud the sentence, paragraph, or lines, 
now (or previously) assigned. The appointed portion should 
have some unity. 
VIII. Let the student interpret exactly the meaning by substituting 
his own words : explain peculiarities. This translation or 
paraphrase should often be in writing. 

IX. Let him state the immediate object of the author in these lines. 
Is this object relevant ? important ? appropriate in this place? 
X. Let him point out the ingredients (particular thoughts) that 
make up the passage. Are they in good taste ? just ? natu- 
ral ? well arranged ? 

XI. Let him point out other merits or defects, — anything note- 
worthy as regards nobleness of principle or sentiment, grace, 
delicacy, beauty, rhythm, subhmity, wit, wisdom, humor, 
naivete, kindliness, pathos, energy, concentrated truth, logi- 
cal force, originality ; give allusions, kindred passages, prin- 
ciples illustrated, etc. 

As a rule, pupils likely to assist each other should not be set at 
work upon the same sentences, especially if the exercise is to be in 
writing. Each should be independent of interference. 

As an illustration of one method in which a choice passage may be 
made the basis of language lessons and of rhetorical drill, take the 
twenty-one lines in which occurs the celebrated compliment to Queen 
Elizabeth (II, i, 145-166). 



APPENDIX. 119 



Oberon. . . . Thou rememberest 1 

Since once I sat upon a promontory, 2 

And heard a mermaid on a dolphin's back 3 

Uttering such dulcet and harmonious breath 4 

That the rude sea grew civil at her song, 5 

And certain stars shot madly from their spheres, 6 
To hear the sea-maid's music. 

Puck. I remember. 7 

Oberon. That very time I saw, but thou couldst not, 8 

Flying between the cold moon and the earth, 9 

Cupid all arm'd : a certain aim he took 10 

At a fair vestal throned by the west, 11 

And loosed his love-shaft smartly from his bow, 12 

As it should pierce a hundred thousand hearts ; 13 

But I might see young Cupid's fiery shaft 14 

Quench'd in the chaste beams of the watery moon, 15 

And the imperial votaress passed on, 16 

In maiden meditation, fancy-free. 17 

Yet mark'd I where the bolt of Cupid fell : 18 

It fell upon a little western flower, 19 

Before milk-white, now purple with love's wound, 20 

And maidens call it love-in-idleness. 21 

(1) Let all the pupils memorize this, and one or more of them 
recite it vv^ith appropriate vocal expression. 

(2) Let one to whom the task has been particularly assigned 
explain any difficult or unusual word, phrase, or sentence in the first 
seven lines. In like manner let another take the next seven lines, 
and another the last seven. 

(3) Let each of the three translate the passage assigned him into 
exactly equivalent English, avoiding, if possible, the use of the words 
of the original. 

(4) Let him point out in the assigned portion peculiarities, merits, 
palpable blemishes, if any, or possible improvements. 

(5) Let the teacher call for criticisms, if he has not done so already. 

(6) Let the lines be now read once more with all the elocutionary 
skill attainable ; or let it be spoken with proper gestures to accompany. 

Under heading 2, the average student would perhaps proceed orally, 
or, better, with a prepared manuscript, substantially as follows : — 

' Since ' is used for ' when. ' Mermaids were fabulous marine 
creatures, represented in the mythology of northern Europe as hav- 
ing the upper half like a woman, the lower like a fish. J/er etymo- 
logically means ' sea ' or ' lake.' The ' mermaid on a dolphin's back' 
suggests the story of the sweet singer Arion, whose life was thus saved 
by a song-loving dolphin. 'The rude sea grew civil at her song.' 
This reminds us of the power ascribed by Shakespeare in the Merchant 
of Venice to the lyre of Orpheus. It ' drew trees, stones, and floods.' 

' Spheres ' are the imaginary crystal shells, or transparent, bubble- 
like globes, concentric, and revolving about the earth, as taught in 
the Ptolemaic or Alphonsine astronomy. Each of the so-called seven 
planets was supposed to be fastened in one or other of these hollow 
' spheres,' and all the fixed stars were set in the eighth. The spheres, 
rotating with different degrees of velocity through the all-pervading 
ether, gave rise to different notes of the scale, and made the skies a 



120 APPENDIX. 

great music organ. The music of the ninth sphere was a diapason, 
a concentration of the tones of all the rest. 

'Cupid.' Four ideals of Eros [Amor, Love, or Cupid] are recogniz- 
able: (1) That of Hesiod, "Nature-power, a world-making impulse, 
which, through mysterious attractions, combined all things in pairs" ; 

(2) "Eros of the philosophers and of the mysteries . . . whose 
dominion was to extend throughout the universe, and whose mission 
was to infuse with love hearts human and divine, to harmonize all 
discords, to ensure victory to the True, the Beautiful, and the Good; " 

(3) Son of Aphrodite (Venus), "represented by a youth whose face 
was radiant with a beauty of which it is said, ' It comes from God, 
and it leads to God' " ; (4) "A later and lighter ideal of Aphrodite's 
[Venus's] son, better known as Cupid, represented as a mischievous 
boy with a quiverful of golden arrows, with which he made merciless 
havoc among human hearts." 

A ' vestal ' is so called from being consecrated to Vesta, goddess of 
the hearth. The name became a synonym for purity. All agree that 
Queen Elizabeth is here meant, although Theseus must have lived, if 
he lived at all, at least 2500 years before she was born ! 'As'' is for 
' as if.' ' Might ' is * could. ' The ' watery moon ' is perhaps so called 
from its influence on dews and tides. ' In maiden meditation, fancy- 
free,' is declared by Richard Grant White, in his Studies in Shake- 
speare, to be ' the most beautiful example in all literature of the beauty 
of alliteration. ' 

'A little western flower' is understood to mean the pansy {viola 
tricolor), also called ' heart' s-ease,' and by many other names. 

Under heading 3, the student might perhaps translate somewhat as 
follows : — 

You recollect my sitting at one time on a headland, hearkening to a 
sea-nymph who rode on a delphine fish, and breathed forth a voice so 
sweet and musical that the rough ocean waxed well-mannered at her 
singing, and some luminaries in the sky darted in frenzy from their 
orbs to list the siren's melody. 

I recollect. 

At the self-same moment I beheld, winging his way betwixt the chill 
lunar and the terrestrial world, the love-god completely equipped for 
war. With sure direction he levelled a shaft at a beauteous maiden, 
who had been consecrated to Vesta and was sitting in royal state far 
towards the sunset ; and he sharply let fly from his bent weapon his 
amatory bolt, seemingly to penetrate ten myriad breasts. Yet could 
I descry child Eros' s burning dart extinguished in the pure rays of 
the wet star of Diana, and the empress votary glided past in virgin 
contemplation, unenthralled by passion. 

But I observed the spot on which love's missile dropped. It lighted 
on a diminutive occidental blossom, that formerly was of lacteal 
whiteness, at present is violet-hued by Cupid's harmful gash ; and 
virgins name it ' love-in-idleness.' 

Under heading 4, the student would perhaps suggest some of the 
following ideas : — 

The whole passage indicates a most fertile creative imagination. It 
contains eight or ten distinct pictures, each a remarkable piece of 



APPENDIX. 121 

word-painting, some of them striking in their personification, and tlie 
whole series, as in a kinetoscope, vividly telling the story continuously 
from beginning to end. 

The compliments to Queen Elizabeth are exceedingly graceful, and 
they revive scenes of great interest, the ' Princely Pleasures of Kenil- 
worth.' 

The supposed enchantments wrought by music are powerfully de- 
scribed. 

A single Avord, 'spheres,' brings much of the old poetic astronomy 
to mind. 

The sentential structure is elegant, the rhythm perfect, the allitera- 
tion in one line exquisite ; the general strength and the particular 
weakness of love are set forth in lines which happily illustrate Pope's 
aphorism, — 

The sound should seem an echo to the sense. 

Under heading 5, further criticism and comment are in order. 
Here, too, if not before, it may be well to explain and discuss War- 
burton's imagined discovery that the twenty-five lines, beginning 
"Thou rememberest," "constitute," to use his own language, "the 
noblest and justest allegory ever written." [See our footnotes, and 
Furness. ] 

Lastly, under heading 6, one of the best readers, if necessary the 
teacher himself, who should always he skilled in vocal expression., 
should recite the passage with appropriate delivery. 



The foregoing rather crude treatment of these lines, supplemented 
by judieious comments, may illustrate what we believe to be one of 
the best possible exercises for giving fulness and accuracy in language 
and for cultivating the taste. It will be found, upon inspection, that 
our notes are prepared with a view to such exercises. Sometimes 
interpretations that are very nearly equivalent are given, in order that 
nicety of taste and felicity of expression may be developed in choosing 
among them. Care must he taken., however, not to push these or any 
other class exercises so far into detail as to render them uninteresting., 
or to withdraw attention from the great features of the drama. And 
especially should it ever he home in mind that it is of vital importance 
to make the student enjoy this study. 



122 



APPENDIX. 



SOME TOPICS FOR ESSAYS. 



Mythology in a nutshell, V, i, 20. 

Life as a dream. 

Theseus and Hippolyta. 

The Amazons. 

' ' The ancient privilege of Athens, ' ' 
I, i, 41. 

"The triple Hecate." 

Py ramus and Thisbe. 

Anachronisms in the play. 

The Athenian players. 

Bottom. 

Moonshine and Wall. 

Plays within plays. 

Puck. 

Robin Goodfellow. 

Pairies in general. 

Spenser's fairies. 

Shakespeare's fairies. 

Oberon and Titania. 

Changelings. 

Fairy machinery. 

Pairy rings and dances. 

Latin meanings of words. 

Personification in Shakespeare. 

Apprehension and comprehension. 

Lunatic, lover, and poet. 

Poetic frenzy or inspiration. 

"Princely Pleasures of Kenil- 
worth." 

Vesta and vestals. 

Differentiate Hermia and Helena. 

Differentiate Lysander and Deme- 
trius. 



Legal phraseology in the play. 
" Cupid is a knavish lad," III, ii, 

440. 
Battle of the Centaurs. 
Orpheus and the Bacchse. 
"Learning late deceased in beg- 
gary," V, i, 53. 
Theseus and Ariadne. 
Arion and the Dolphins. 
' ' Never anything can be amiss 

When simpleness and duty ten- 
der it," V, i, 82, 83. ^ 
Complaint of Lysander, I, i, 132- 

145. 
The Prologue, V, i, 108-150. 
"The tongs and the bones," IV, i, 

27. 
Alliteration. 

Musical cry of hounds, IV, i, 103. 
"The best in this kind are but 

shadows, and the worst are no 

worse if imagination amend 

them," V, i, 208, 209. 
The names of the Dramatis Per- 

sonce. 
Moral, or lessons of the play. 
The Man in the Moon, with his 

dog and bush. 
Hermia vs. Helena. 
Warburton's imagined allegory, II, 

i, 145-165. 
A lion among ladies. 



Il^DEX. 



abbreviated forms, 18 
abide, 71, T8, 82 
abide it dear, 72 
abridgment, 98 
ace, 109 
Acheron, 79 
actresses, 34 
adamant, 47 
Addison, quoted, 10, 9 
address'd, 101 
advis'd, 24 
JEgle, 41 
jEneas, pious, 29 
afeard, 58 
against, 68 
aggravate, 35 
all arm'd, 45 
all ways, 87 
allegory, 45 
alliteration, 45 
alone, 69 
alone will go, 54 
Amazons, 21 
amiable, 85 
and, 100 
an, 35 

anl(=if I?), 34 
an if, 56 
an 'twere, 35 
Antiopa, 41 
antipodes, 67 
antique, 96 
apprehend, 97 
approve, 53 
apricocks, 63 
arabesque, 11 
are you sure, 93 
argument, 74 
Ariadne, 21, 41 
arrow, best, 28 
artificial, 73 
ass's head, 60 
aunt, 40 
Aurora's, 80 
avouch, 26 
aweary, 107 
ay me! 27, 56 
aye, 26 



Bacchanals, 99 

badge, 70 

bait, 72 

ballad, 94 

barm, 39 

barren sort, 65 

bated, 29 

batty, 79 

Baynes, quoted, 15 

be as, 88 

be it so, 23 

beached, 41 

beams, 108 

beard, 42 

beasts, in a, 106 

bed room (or bed-room ?), 53 

behold, when Phoebe doth, 

30 
behowls. 111 
beUke, 27 
bellows, 33 
Bergamo, 111 
Bergomask, 111 
beshrew, 53, 108 
best arrow, 28 
best, the, 106 
best wit of any, 94 
beteem, 27 
Bible, 77 

black-browed night, 80 
bless, 113 
blessed, 113 
blood, 68 
bootless, 39 
bottle, 86 
Bottom, 12, 13, 14 
Bottom-ese, 34, 35, 108, 109 
Bottom's pronunciation, 85 
bowl, 39 
brave touch, 67 
brawls, 42 
breath, 66 
brief. 98 
broke, 29 
broom, with, 112 
bully, 57 
burr, 75 
bush of thorns, a, 59 

123 



buskin'd, 41 

but, 48 

but , . . now, 91 

buy, 82 

by that, 75 



Cadmus, 90 

Campbell, quoted, 11 

can you (or we can ?), 52 

canker-blossom, 76 

cankers, 50 

capacity, my, 101 

Carthage queen, 29 

cat, 52 

Cavalery, 86 

centaurs, battle with, 98 

changeling, 38 

Chaucer, 21, 22, 28, 93 

cheek by jowl, 78 

cheer, 68, 109 

cherries, 70 

chid, 72 

chide, 44 

chiding, 90 

childing autumn, 43 

choughs, 66 

churchyards, 80 

clamorous, 50 

clerks, 101 

Cobweb, 86 

coil, 78 

cold, 45 

Coleridge, Hartley, quoted, 

12 
Coleridge, S. T., 82, 37 
coUied, 27 
come, 70 

Comedy, lamentable, 32 
comforts, shine, 82 
compact, 96 
compare, 76 
companion, 22 
compel, 74 
comprehends, 97 
conceits, 23 
condole, 83 
conference, 62 



124 



confound, 109 
confounding, 68 
confusion, 28, 90 
conjunction, 90 
conjure, 71 
consecrate, 113 
constancy, 97 
continent, 42 
Corson, Professor, 117 
courtesy, leave your, 86 
Cowden-Olarke, Charles, 

quoted, 14 
cowslips, 38 
coy, 85 
crab, 39 
crannied, 104 
crazed, 25 
crescent, 107 
critical, 99 

critical comments, 10-17 
cross-ways, 80 
cry cuckoo, 62 
cry . . . mercy, 64 
cue, 59, 93 

Cupid painted blind, 31 
Cupid's flower, 88 
curst, 77 
cut, 64 



dance it, 112 

Daphne, 48 

darkness, following, 112 

date, 80 

dead, 67 

dear expense, 32 

debt, for, 68 

deep, the, 67 

Demetrius, 12, 13 

derision, 79 

Dervise, his magic, 11 

despised, 53 

detest, 83 

dewberries, 63 

dewlap, 40 

dew-lapp'd, 90 

Dian's bud, 88 

Dido, 29 

die the death, 24 

discharge, 35, 94 

door, behind the, 112 

dotage, 87 

dote, 31 

double, 51 

doubler, 67 

dowager, 21, 28 

Dowden, quoted, 14 

dragons, 80 

Drake's, Sir Francis, 46 

drawn, 81 

duke, 22 

duration of the action, 115 



each at other, 74 
earthlier happy, 25 
eastern gate, 81 
edict, 28 



INDEX. 




Egeus, 22, 91 


G 


Egypt, of, 96 




eight and six, 58 


game, 31 


either, 39, 56 


gauds, 23, 92 


eke, 60 


gentleness, 55 


Elizabeth, Queen, 45, 58 


Gervinus, quoted, 12 \ 


elm, 87 


Gibbon, 72, 73 


embarked, 44 


girdle round about the 


enforced chastity, 64 


earth, 46 


enthraUed, 27, 62 


glance, 41 


Ercles, 33 


gleek, 62 


error, the greatest, 107 


Globe Theatre, 72 


estate, 26 


go (= come?), 26, 83 


Ethiope, 75 
even but now, 74 


go about, 93 


God bless us, 109 ' 


exile, 80 


gods, artificial, 78 
God's my Ufe, 93 


expense, a dear, 32 


exposition, 87 


Golding's Ovid, 104 


extempore, 34 


gossip's, 39 


extenuate, 26 


government, 102 


extort, 71 


grace, 54, 74 


eye . . . ear, 94 


green, 42 


eyes (or eye ?), 27 


Gregory Nazianzen, 72, 73 


eyne, 31, 54, 104 


griffin, 48 




grim-look'd, 104 


F 


grisly, 103 


grow to a point, 32 


faining, 23 


grows, 49 


faint, 25, 30 




fair (= beauty?), 29 


H 


Fairy, 40, 44 

fall (= let fall ?), 103 




Hail, mortal ! 64 


fancy, 28, 68 


half sleep, 91 


fancy free, 45 


Hallam, quoted, 12. 


fantasy, impression of, 23 


hands, 114 


Farmer, Dr., 44 


hanged, I'll be, 95 


Fates, 110 


harbinger, 80 


favor, 29 


hast disturb'd, 42 


favors, 87 


hath, 42 


fear, 97 


Hazlitt, quoted, 11 
hearts, 95 


fearful, 101 


fell, 106 


hear without warning, 105 


fellow, 86 


heavy gait. 111 


female ivy, 87 
females, 83 


Hecate's, triple, 112 


hedgehogs, 51 


fierce, 88 


he for a man, 109, 110 


find, 53 


he is so oft, 31 


fiery glow-worm's eyes, 63 


Helena, 13, 55, 77 


fire, 61, 88 


Helius, 80, 96 


fitted, 100 


hence, away, 51 


five (or fine ?), 88 


henchman, 43 


Fleay, 116 
flew'd, 90 


Hermes, 13 


Hermia, 13 


floods, 80 


her . . . that, 78, 94 


flout. 55 


Hiems, 43 


fond,' 50, 54, 69, 77 


hight, 103 


for (=asto?),26 


Hippolyta, 21 


force, of, 66 


his, 42 


fordone. 111 


his sight, 32 


forgeries, 41 


his . . . this, 88 \ 


forth, 28 


hiss, 'a snaky salutation,' 


for you, 26 


114 


French-crown-color, 35 


hobgoblin, 39 


French crowns, 35 


ho, ho,- ho ! 82 : 


Furies, 108 


hold, 40 


Furness, quoted, 16, 25, 43, 


hold, or cut bowstrings, 86 


44,49 


holding troth, one man, 68 


Furniyall, quoted, 15 


honeysuckle, 87 



INDEX, 



12b 



hounds, musical voices of, 
90 

how chance, 109 
howsoever, 97 
Hudson, quoted, 15, 116 
human mortals, 42 
humble-bees, 63 



I'll lead you — about - 

around, 61 
imagining, 97 
immediately provided, 23 
impeach, 47 
incorporate, 73 
increase, 43 
India, steep of, 41 
in extremity, 65 
injurious, 72 
injury, 44 
in spite of, 72 
in this kind, 24 
intend, 78 
interchanged, 52 
is two, there, 95 
it doth shine, 59 
I win none, 71 



Jack shall have Jill, 84 

jaugHng, 79 

jealousy, 91 

■jewels, 63, 93 

Johnson, Samuel, quoted, 

10,48 
juggler, 76 
juvenal, 60 



KenUworth, princely pleas- 
ures of, 45, 58 
kind, in this, 24 
kind . . . kinder, 101 
knacks, 23 
knit, 93 

know of your youth, 24 
Kreyssig, quoted, 13 



lakin, 57 

lamentable comedy, 32 

language lesson, one form 

of, 118-121 
lanthorn, 59, 103, 106 
Lapithfe and centaurs, 98 
latch'd, 66 
laugh, 40 
law, our, 23 
learning, 99 
leaden legs, 79 
legal phraseology, 68 
Leicester, Earl of, 45 . 
leviathan, 46 
lies in you, 43 



Uke, 73, 92 

Limander, 105 

lingers, 21 

Hon, among ladies, 58 

lion, your, 58 

lips, 110 

hquor, 79 

literature, study of, 116 

livery, 24 

lob, 38 

lode-stars, 29 

long of, 78 

lordship, 25 

love's, 64 

love-in-idleness, 45 

lovely, 73 

lover's fee, 69 

luck, unearned, 114 

luscious, 49 

Lysander, 12, 13 

M 

Macaulay, quoted, 11 

made, 95 

Maginn, quoted, 13 

make all split, 33 

makes, 83 

man, 106 

man i' the moon, 107 

m argent, 41 

mask, 34 

marry, 32 

marshal, 55 

Marshall, quoted, 16 

match'd in mouth like bells, 

90 
may, 96 
may all, 88 
May-day, 28, 76 
May-pole, 76 
mazed, 43 
mazes, 42 
mechanicals, 65 
Meiklejohn, 117 
melted, 92 
mermaid, 44 
mew'd, 25 
middle summer's spring, 

41 
midnight, 31 
might, 45 
might be, 91 
minimus, 78 
miracle plays, 82 
misgraffed, 27 
mislead, 39 
misprised, 68 
misprision, 68 
Moberly, 24, 97 
mock, to, 71 
momentary, 27 
monster, as a, 54 
moon, 43, 64 
moon's, 37 
moral, 105 
moral-plays, 82 



more better, 57 
more witnesseth, 97 
morning's love, 80 
morris, 42 
muses, nine, 99 

N 

nativity, 113 

nature shows art, 55 

naught, 95 

neaf, 86 

nearly that (=that nearly?), 

27 
needles, 73 
needs, 69 
ne'er alter, 53 
neeze, 40 
Neptune, 81 
never, 78, 83 
never so, 62 
news, 76 
newts, 51 
next, 102 
night-rule, 65 
night, time of, 112 
Ninus, 60 
no, no, sir, 75 
noble respect, 101 
'nointed, 79 
nole, 65 
none, 30 
nor I cannot, 47 
nun, 24 

nuptial, 27, 100 
nymph, 49 



0, is all forgot ? 72 

Oberon, 11 

obscenely, 36 

observance, to do, 28 

observation, 89 

odious savors, 60 

o'er, 88 

o'erlook, 55 

of, 107 

of all loves, 56 

of friends (or of merit?), 

27 
off from, 46 
offices, 50 
of me, 95 
of which, 98 
on, 67 

orange-tawny, 35, 62 
orbs, 38 
or let, 59 
Orpheus and Eurydice, 

99 
other, 88 
other some, 81 
ounce, 52 
our sweet, 51 
ousel cock, 61 
overflown, 85 
owe, 54 



126 



INDEX. 



pageant, 69 

pap, 109 

paragon, 95 

pard, 52 

parlous, 57 

passing, 38 

passionate, 74 

pat, 105 

pat, pat, 57 

patched, 94 

patches, 65 

patience, 64, 87 

paved, 41 

pearls, 38, 87 

Peascod, 64 

pensioners, 38 

Pepys, quoted, 10 

Perigenia, 41 

periods, 101 

persevere, 74 

persuasion, 28 

pert, 22 

petty, 42 

Philomel, 51 

Philostrate, 98 

Phoebe, 30 

Phosphorus, 80 

pilgrimage, 25 

pipes of corn, 40 

piping, 42 

Pirithous, 98 

pity of my life, 58 

plain-song, 62 

play, a, 94 

play a woman, 34 

Plutarch, 22, 24 

point, 55 

points,doth not stand upon, 

102 
pomp, 22 
posterity, 89 
potion, 75 
prays, 75 
preferred, 95 
preposterously, 69 
present, 59 
presented, 65 
privilege, 48 
prodigious, 113 
Prologue, 102 
promise, 58 
proper, 35 
properties, 35 
Prosper, 11 
Proteus, 61 
provender, 86 
provided, immediately in 

that case, 23 
pumps, 95 
purple-in-grain, 35 
Pyramus, 32, 60, 99, 109 

Q 

quaint, 50 
quantity, 81 
queen, Carthage, 29 



Queen'Elizabeth, 45 
quell, 108 
quern, 39 



rate, 63 

recorder, 102 

recreant, 81 

remov'd, 28 

rent, 73 

reremice, 50 

respects, 28, 48 

restore amends, 114 

revenue, 21, 28 

rheumatic, 43 

ringlets, 41 

ripe, 98 

ripe not, 55 

rite of May, 91 

Robin Goodfellow, 82 

rock the ground, 89 

Roister Boister, the stage 

trick in, 102 
room (metre of?), 40 
round, 44 
roundel, 50 
russet-pated, 66 

S 

sad, 89 

salt green, 81 

sampler, 73 

sanded, 90 

scandal, 48 

scaped, 95 

scape the serpent's tongue, 

114 
scansion, 49, 54, 76, 83 
Schlegel, quoted, 10 
schooling, 26 
Scott, Walter, 45, 58 
scrip, 32 
seem, 90 

seem to break loose, 75 
seething, 96 

self (peculiar meaning ?), 26 
Semiramis, 60 
set his wit, 62 
shadows (biblical?), 27, 

106, 114 
Shakespeare's sj'mpathetic 

magnanimity, 100 
she, 74 
sheen, 38 

shepherd's pipe, 41 
shine comforts, 82 
shore, 110 
should woo, 69 
shrewd, 39, 77 
silly, 39 
since, 44, 76 
sinister, 104 
sisters three, 110 
Skeat, 21, 86 
skim, 39 
Skottowe, quoted, 11 



slay, 46 

slayeth, 46 

slow, 90 

Snout, 104 

snuif, 107 

Snug, tell them plainly he 

is, 58 
so, 26 

so far . . . to sleep, 91 
soft, 90 
solemnly, 89 
Solon's law, 23 
something, 77 
sometime of, 49 
sort, 79 

soul of love, 46 
souls, in, 70 
sources of the plot, 10 
spaniel, 47 
speak you fair, 47 
Spenser, 99 
sphere, 67 
spheres, 44 
sphery, 54 
spirits, 50 
spleen, 27 
spoke, 29 
spotted, 26 
square, 38 
Squash, 64 
squirrel's, 86 
stand forth, 22 
stay, 44, 48 
stealth, 77, 92 
still (=ever, always?), 30 
stolen, 23 
stop, 102 
strange, 97 
strange snow, 99 
strings, 95 
such . . . that, 96 
sucking dove, 35 
supper, after, 98 
swimming, 44 
swoon, 56 



tailor, 40 

take, 101 

tales, 70 

tame, 75 

Tartar's bow, 69 

Taurus, 70 

tawny, 75 

team, 112 

tender, 68 

Tennyson, 28 

Tereus and Procne, 51 

that, 82, 96, 112 

that, they shall hear, 61 

the man shall have, 84 

thee, 49 

there is two, 59 

therefore, 76 

Theseus, 12, 21, 6tpa88\ 

Thessalian, 90 



INDEX. 



127 



thick-Bkin, 65 

thin, 43 

thine or mine, 78 

third part of a minute, 50 

Thirlby, 46 

this half, 23 

Thisbe, 32, 109 

Thisbe's mother, 34 

Thisue, 34 

Thorn, Professor, 117 

thorough, 37, 43 

thou Shalt not from, 44 

though, 112 

thread and thrum, 108 

three, 83 

throstle, 62 

Thurber, Samuel, 117 

Tibullus, 48 

tide, 105 

tiring-house, 57 

Titania, 12, 13, 15, 40, 64, 

etc. 
Tithonus, 80 
to, 83 
to her, 71 

tongs and bones, 86 
tongue, lose thy light, 109 
topics for essays, 122 
touch, 76 
toward, 60 
toys, 96 

translated, 29, 61 
transported, 94 
trim, 71 

triple Hecate's, 112 
triumph, 22 
Trojan, false, 29 
troth, 52, 55 
trusty, 103 
truth, 70 

try no manhood, 81 
turns, 81 
Tyrwhitt, 43 



u 

unbreath'd, 100 
unburied dead, spirits of, 
uncouple, 89 
undergo, to, 25 
unharden'd, 23 
unheedy, 31 
up in the, 105 



Valentine, 91 
vantage, 26 
vaward, 89 
Venus' doves, 28 
versing, 41 
vestal, 45 
videlicet, 110 
villagery, 39 
virgin patent, 25 
virtuous, 79 
vixen, 77 
voice, I see a, 105 
votaress, 43 
vows so born, 70 

W 

wandering, 80 

wandering moon, 89 

want, 42 

Avanton, 42 

Warburton, 45, 99 

warned, 110 

washes, 43 

Avatery moon, 45 

waxen, 40 

weak bond, 75 

weavers (psalm-singers ?), 

86 
weaving spiders, 51 
weeds, 49, 53 



"Weiss, quoted, 14 

welkin, 79 

well possessed, 26 

Wendell, quoted, 16 

what cheer, 26 

what graces, 30 

when all is done, 57 

where, 91 

where the wild, 49 

wherefore, 76 

whether, 24, 63, 68 

which (= what ?), 26 

whiles, 80 

White, E. G., quoted, 15, 43 

whose approach, 80 

witchcraft, 60, 61 

with, 52 

with my sword, 22 

withering out, 21 

without, 91 

wode, 47 

Woelffel, quoted, 12 

wonder of, 91 

wondrous, 99 

woodbine, 87 

Wordsworth, 28; quoted, 

97 
worm, 67 
wot, 82, 92 
wrath, 38 
wren, 62 



yea, 93 

yielders, 66 

you of (= of you ?), 64 

you sat, 56 

you see an ass-head of your 

own, 61 
you were best, 32 
your fair, 29 
your words I catch, 29 
youth, know of your, 24 



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